A small section of the Trans-Canada Highway in B.C.’s Southern Interior that was closed because of flooding on Thursday has been reopened.
On Friday morning, DriveBC reported that part of the highway about 15 kilometres west of Revelstoke was open again to single-lane, alternating traffic.
Drivers should expect heavy traffic and delays due to congestion.
Approximately four kilometres of the Trans-Canada were closed on Thursday morning because of flooding between Woods OH Bridge and Summit Lake OH Bridge.
The closure forced motorists to either sit and wait out the closure, or use alternate routes.
The Ministry of Transportation said on Friday that crews and equipment are still on site, working to repair the highway.
Below is a tweet from Thursday showing drone photos of the highway closure.
In an email to Global News, the ministry said crews and engineers have been working on a diversion to dissipate flood waters and reduce overflows, as well as conducting culvert clearing.
“Water in the main drainage system dropped overnight, allowing crews to make good progress in redirecting the water away from the highway,” said the ministry.
“Although crews have made good progress to enable the re-opening of the highway, we continue to have two short segments under shallow waters.”
The ministry continued, saying work will continue to fully restore the highway to free-flowing, two-way traffic.
“Travelers can expect heavy congestion and delays passing through the site. Priority is being given to clear traffic staged along the highway and in the adjacent communities, which we anticipate will take several hours.”
In related news, the weather forecast for the Revelstoke area is calling for more rain.
Environment Canada says for Friday, there will be showers with a risk of thunderstorms, along with a high of 16 and a low of 11.
For Saturday, the national weather agency is predicting a few showers ending in the morning, then mainly cloudy skies with a 30 per cent chance of rain.
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