The highway leading in and out of the Pacific Rim communities of Tofino and Ucluelet will be closed for five consecutive Wednesdays starting on April 28th.
The province is warning drivers that a section of Highway 4 at Kennedy Hill will be closed from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. for roughly ten hours each day for blasting and removal of a significant rock bluff.
This 10-hour closure is required for crews to undertake one of the most complex blasts in an area of the bluff directly above the road repair site where a temporary bridge had to be used in spring 2020.
The daylight closure will allow workers time to prepare the road beneath the blast area and to safely remove loose rock immediately following the blast.
The contractor did a similar blast last month with a 10-hour closure and the highway reopened on time.
“A similar degree of preparation in advance of each blast is required for these next five scheduled blasts,” the province said in a statement.
The dates for the 10-hour closures are:
- Wednesday, April 28th
- Wednesday, May 5th
- Wednesday, May 12th
- Wednesday, May 19th
- Wednesday, May 26th
Once the above work is complete, the majority of the blasting work on the project will be complete, and no further 10-hour closures will be needed to complete the project, and the contractor will be closer to moving to night-time blasting, as the busier summer months approach.
The regular project closure schedule of four-hour road closures on weekdays between 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. will continue on the other weekdays.
Construction on the Kennedy Hill Highway 4 safety project is over 60 per cent complete and is geared towards a better, safer connection from Port Alberni and the west coast of Vancouver Island.
Improvements to the 1.5 kilometre stretch of road include widening to accommodate two full lanes and paved shoulders, realignments, and the addition of a rest area with a lakeside view that will be accessible to passenger vehicles, RVs, buses or transport trucks.
The full schedule of intermittent highway closures for the area is available here.
