It’s been a long week for some local truckers. Dilpreet Kaur and her husband were among those caught up in closures following the Highway 1 rockslide near Field BC, Tuesday.
They had parked along the highway west of Field because of heavy fog earlier that night.
“We parked like an hour before that. In the morning we were stuck there about five hours,” Kaur said.
Options for truckers and all travelers were limited.
“You can take the detour, which is like, another four hours back – and it’s really dangerous. It was snowing there so we came back,” Kaur said.
It took Parks Canada two days to clear enough of the estimated 10,000 cubic metres of fallen debris to reopeon a single lane of traffic.
READ MORE: Highway 1 reopens after rockslide near Field, BC; 3-hour closure Friday
It’s a delicate task. Two excavator operators were injured during the original slide.
“We are working closely with WorksafeBC to ensure that the plan each day for the work that’s ongoing is safe for workers and the travelling public,” Marnie DiGiandomenico with Parks Canada said. “But it is a difficult area to be working in with a lot of rock that has to be moved and a single lane of gravel surface for the travelling public open right now.”
For now, it’s a 30 kilometre an hour grind, with delays expected to get worse over the weekend and to continue into the foreseeable future.
“We are expecting to pave on Sunday, but there’s still a lot of work to do to continue with the grading and prepping of the road as well as work to continue stabilizing the rock slope,” DiGiandomenico said. “Eventually we will need to blast again to get some of that rock to come down and then that will need to be cleared.”
Parks Canada continues to recommend using an alternate route through Golden, but it’s taking a toll on truckers. The Alberta Motor Transport Association (AMTA) suggests it’s costing its member carriers an estimated $300 per trip, not including lost time.
“This has resulted in three to four hours per trip and in some cases some of the drivers are having to shut down now between Calgary and Vancouver half-way because they’re out of hours,” Andrew Barnes with AMTA said. “It’s adding on time which affects not only an impact financially to the carriers, but possibly to the shipper and even the consumer when these type of things happen.”
Many drivers, instead, choose alternate destinations.
“Ya I was supposed to take a load there, but… there’s no sense sitting on the road,” truck driver Bill Gardner said.
“We don’t know how the roads are now,” Kaur said.
“We asked our dispatch not to give us loads to that way.”
Parks Canada continues to recommend drivers check www.drivebc.ca for the latest updates.
Comments