Drivers returning to the Lower Mainland from the B.C. Interior Monday were faced with more congestion on the Coquihalla Highway due to an apparent online mapping glitch.
Due to back-ups and delays at Larson Hill, just south of Merritt, drivers told Global News that Google Maps told them they needed to take a detour.
It appears a glitch with the online navigation tool took some motorists near Merritt to a logging road.
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However, that road had been washed out.
Hundreds of drivers were then forced to turn around and come all the way back to the busy highway.
Global News has reached out to Google to find out what happened.
In July, the provincial government announced that a $4.6-million repair contract for the Othello section of the highway was awarded to Emil Anderson Construction and the Chawathil First Nation.
The joint venture to repair the section started in early August and should be completed soon. The section is located around three kilometres north of the junction of highways 3 and 5.
Around 460 metres of the southbound lanes were washed out on the highway during intense rainstorms last November. Those will be replaced, along with upsizing culverts, widening shoulders and reinstating roadside barriers and spillways.
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