More closures coming to Highway 4 as ministry delays reopening Vancouver Island highway
CTV
More closures are coming to Highway 4, the only highway to the western Vancouver Island communities of Port Alberni, Tofino and Ucluelet, as the province announced a delayed timeline for a full reopening Monday.
More closures are coming to Highway 4, the only highway to the western Vancouver Island communities of Port Alberni, Tofino and Ucluelet, as the province announced a delayed timeline for a full reopening Monday.
The B.C. Ministry of Transportation and Infrastructure says Highway 4 will be closed for two days this month – Thursday, Aug. 17, and Thursday, Aug. 24.
The Thursday closures will last from 8:30 a.m. until 9 p.m. to allow workers to remove "approximately a dozen refrigerator-sized boulders" from the Angel Rock area of Cameron Lake.
The ministry says the area has been the most challenging portion of the rock-scaling work that has been underway since the Cameron Bluffs wildfire destabilized the slope above the highway.
"Rock scaling is a complex and labour-intensive process, requiring work on cliff faces to safely remove dangerous rock material, and can be carried out only in daylight hours and during favourable weather conditions," the ministry said in a statement.
The highway was initially expected to fully reopen to two-way traffic by mid-August but the province now says it is delaying the reopening until the end of the month.
The ministry erected mesh coverings along highway to prevent loose rocks and other debris from falling onto the roadway after the Cameron Bluffs wildfire.
