‘Daunting task’: 20 sites, 5 bridges on the Coquihalla heavily damaged or washed away

The catastrophic damage to the Coquihalla Highway (Hwy 5) has been widely published over the past 10 days.

Today, Minister of Transportation and Infrastructure Rob Fleming gave the public a more in depth idea of the extent of the damage to the major highway.

Fleming said that around 20 sites have been damaged or washed away and that’s around 130 kilometres of the corridor that is affected.

That includes five bridges where spans completely collapsed or were otherwise heavily damaged.

“This is going to be a daunting task to get that highway back to being fully operational, but I’m pleased to report that the work has begun,” Fleming explained.

“Right now, we have over 100 pieces of equipment working around the clock to restore temporary access as quickly as possible.”

The minister said he’s “reasonably optimistic” that enough temporary repairs can be completed to allow commercial traffic on the corridor by late January, or in about two months’ time.

However, he also cautioned that weather will be a major factor and a key consideration in determining whether that target can be reached.

He also advised that, much like the opening of other affected highways over the past 10 days, it will not be business as usual on Hwy 5 when it does reopen.

“There will be two segments, each 20-30 km in length, where the highway will have to have reduced speeds and only one lane in each direction will be possible,” noted Fleming.

Fleming offered a few site specific updates along Hwy 5 as well:

• Jessica Bridge: Currently installing a temporary bridge while we demolish the span that collapsed.
• Caroline Bridge: Construction access has been built.
• Bottletop Bridge: Working on installing a temporary access bridge to get crews across while the collapsed span there is demolished.
• Brodie Bridge: Working to protect the abutments there.
• Murray Flats: Currently rebuilding lanes at four different sites.
• Crews are also conducting inriver work at many sites to prevent further erosion and to properly channel the water back under the main spans.

Fleming added that something fortunate about the Hwy 5 damage is that the areas that see the most challenging winter conditions are not significantly impacted.

That includes Snowshed Hill, across the Coquihalla Summit, Larson Hill and the stretch from Larson Hill to Merritt.

At this time, there is no estimate on the cost to repair Hwy 5, but Fleming said the Province is throwing all of its resources at the repairs.