Just as summer comes to a close, so will the closures that slowed traffic heading to and from Port Alberni, Tofino and Ucluelet.
BC’s Ministry of Transportation and Infrastructure announced on Friday, August 25th that one more daylong closure is required to ensure the highway will be safe for drivers going forward. Following that, the corridor should be able to reopen to two-way traffic.
The Cameron Lake Bluffs were the site of a massive wildfire that wiped out the northern-facing slopes that shoulder the highway.
After the fire, the slope was destabilized and crews have been working to remove debris caused by the wildfire along with rubble and several large, “refrigerator sized” boulders through a rock scaling process.
In addition to these processes, crews have installed a 700-metre roadside barrier with fencing to hold back any further debris to fall toward the roadway.
Crews need one more full daylong closure on Tuesday, August 29th in order to do additional rock scaling on Angel Rock, a significant surface of the Cameron Lake Bluffs.
Highway 4 will be fully closed from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. so workers can get the last of this rock scaling done without interruptions or concern for drivers safety.
The goal of this full day closure is to have the highway fully reopened for the last long weekend of the Summer, Labour Day long weekend.
Aside from this full day closure, the highway remains as a one-way traffic corridor with two daily closures from 9 a.m. until 11:30 a.m., and again from 1:30 p.m. until 5 p.m.
Road crews also have to install an additional 1.4 kilometres of barriers and put the finishing touches on the sections of highway that needed to be repaved.
Once the highway is reopened prior to the Labour Day long weekend, crews will take down and dismantle any road signs directing traffic toward the detour route that was established while work commenced on the affected corridor.
BC says that so far, over 200 dangerous trees have been removed from the slopes as well as over 1,000 tonnes of rock rubble.
