SPENCES BRIDGE, B.C. — A rapid change in temperature is causing problems for highways across the Interior.
Slope instability has caused a number of mud and rock slides, shutting communities off from the rest of the province, and forcing transport drivers to make lengthy detours.
A rock slide shut down Highway 1 between Cache Creek and Spences Bridge overnight Thursday.
“They had the road block going there and told us either stay here or you can turn around and go up over the Coquihalla through Kamloops,” said transport driver Fred Coffield.
Coffield decided to spend the night in Cache Creek, not wanting to add anymore distance to his already lengthy Alaska to southern California trek.
“It’s been frustrating because the whole trip has been stop and go, stop and go. Lots of road conditions and stuff like that going on.”
Highway 1 north of Spences Bridge opened to single lane alternating traffic around 11 a.m. For a while, the community had been completely cut off due to mud slides and falling rocks.
“Highway 8 where we have a little farm, Secret Gardens, and that’s where I live, we’ve been cut off for a couple of days going up that way,” local business owner Paulet Rice said. “Last night we got word from the TNRD that both sides coming from Cache Creek, and from Lytton on Highway 1 were closed. So, we were just kind of stuck here.”
Rice also owns The Packing House, a small coffee shop that depends on customers coming in off the highways.
“I just knew that I was coming to work to an empty house pretty much,” Rice said. “You get your locals, of course, but usually your big numbers are coming through on the highway”
A quick thaw is being blamed for slope instability issues around the province.
In addition to the mud slide on Highway 8, and rock slides on Highways 1 and 12, Highway 99 north of Lillooet was affected by a wash out.
Transportation and Infrastructure Minister Todd Stone says crews are working as quickly as they can to clear the highways.
“We’re doing our darndest to keep motorists updated on current road conditions,” he said, “as well as working 24 hours a day to assess the situation, to ensure we understand what’s happening, particularly from a slope stability perspective, and then working feverishly to move debris as quickly as we can to reopen highways that are currently closed.”
With warm temperatures persisting for the next few days there remains the risk for further highway headaches.
“I have never experienced anything like this,” Rice said. “It’s crazy.”
