B.C. floods: Highway route restored between Lower Mainland, B.C. Interior for essential travel

Five days after catastrophic flooding and landslides severed highway routes connecting British Columbia’s Lower Mainland with the province’s Interior, crews have cleared a single route for essential traffic only.

The Ministry of Transportation said Friday that Highway 7 between Metro Vancouver and Hope, and Highway 3 from Hope to Princeton had been opened to vehicles.

Under a new emergency order issued Friday, traffic is restricted to essential vehicles only, and the province said checkpoints would be in place to conduct enforcement.

You can find a list of what qualifies as essential travel here.

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“Ministry of Transportation and Infrastructure staff and highway maintenance contractors have worked around the clock since Sunday to remove debris, repair road surfaces and reopen both highways,” the ministry said in a media release.

“This progress will enable the movement of goods and supplies from the Lower Mainland to get to the rest of B.C. and other provinces.”

Drivers along the route are being warned that sections of both highways will be operating on single-lane alternating traffic protocols, and that delays would be “significant” given the volume of essential traffic.

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Motorists are also being advised to delay their travel for a few days if possible, in order to relieve traffic on the route.

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People who do tackle the drive are being urged to be prepared and patient.

“Highway corridors between the Lower Mainland and the rest of the province are anticipated to be extremely busy with commercial traffic, and at this time of year, conditions can change quickly,” the transportation ministry said.

“Drivers may be taking an unfamiliar route to their destination. Use extreme caution, obey signs, speed limits and the direction of any traffic control personnel.”

Highway 3 had been closed due to a landslide past the Sunshine Valley east of Hope. Highway 7 was closed by slides between Agassiz and Hope that required the aerial evacuation of more than 300 people who became trapped.

The timeline to reopen the other two main routes between the Lower Mainland and the Interior remains unclear.

The Trans-Canada Highway remains closed due to major flooding in Abbotsford along with landslides on either side of Hope.

Multiple sections of the Coquihalla Highway have been destroyed by landslides and washouts, with early estimates suggesting it could take months to repair.