Highway 4 on Vancouver Island reopens to single lane alternating traffic

2:14 Highway 4 closed due to risk of falling debris

Vancouver Island’s only highway between Port Alberni, Ucluelet and Tofino has reopened to single lane alternating traffic Wednesday night.

The key stretch of highway was previously closed due to rain causing an increased risk of falling debris.

Road maintenance has been ongoing in the area between Cathedral Grove and Koen Road after the ground was destabilized by the Cameron Bluffs wildfire back in June.

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Current safety procedures require the site be closed for a minimum 24-hour period as the risk of falling debris increases. The soonest reopening is 12 a.m. on Aug. 10.

This closure has hit the region hard again, after the aggressive wildfire in June cost businesses on the west coast an estimated $44 million, according to a survey.

Highway 4 was closed for 17 days total and continued to suffer intermittent closures for repairs due to the Cameron Bluffs fire.

1:12 Vancouver Island’s critical Highway 4 partially reopens to traffic

Ashok Bhatti, the executive director for the South Coast region of the Ministry of Transportation and Infrastructure told Global News crews have been working on scaling efforts, but WorkSafeBC protocols dictate when there is rainfall on the site and it exceeds a certain amount of millimetres over a time period, they are forced to close the roads.

“So shortly after we exceeded the 12-hour period, which is at 10 millimetres, and so as a result of that we had to shut the site down for safety reasons,” Bhatti said. “This is the first kind of any significant rainfall event since the site was closed.”

He said the slopes along the highway have lost a lot of stability, so when the rain falls, there is concern that saturation without any sort of roots or anything else will cause that material to come down.

“It’s a challenge,” Bhatti said. “I mean, the weather events are unpredictable and we can’t control those. And so, you know, shortly after, we’ve had to put these closures in place.”

2:07 Work underway to reopen Highway 4

• Work underway to reopen Highway 4
• B.C. wildfires: Highway 4 reopening timeline
• Highway 4 remains shut down due to a wildfire
• B.C. wildfires: Impact of ongoing Highway 4 closure on coastal communities
• Escorted supply convoy begins on Highway 4 detour in Alberni Valley
• Ongoing impact of Cameron Bluffs wildfire
• Cameron Bluffs wildfire detour closed
• B.C. braces for an unprecedented wildfire season
• More firefighters on the way to help battle the Cameron Bluffs wildfire
• Drivers navigate the Vancouver Island detour as Highway 4 remains closed

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With more rain expected to fall as the year goes on, there is concern the slope will remain unstable and more closures might be possible.

Bhatti said it is a challenge to get all the work done.

“We’ve already lost today and we’ve actually lost, you know, several days previous to this through wind events and everything else,” he said. “And so that will push our schedule. But again, we looked at the forecast. We see several days of favourable weather coming up here. We’re looking to make some progress and make some ground on that. But we do absolutely want to get this work on as soon as possible so that that predictability doesn’t get too far before we have to have other challenges in place.”

The detour route between Lake Cowichan and Port Alberni remains open for travel. Detour route details are available here.