Vancouver Island’s Highway 4 shut down for boulder removal Thursday

Highway 4 on Vancouver Island is closing at Cameron Lake on Thursday for a boulder removal operation.

The full-day closure cuts off Port Alberni, Tofino, and Ucluelet from the rest of B.C. yet again as crews have been working on the mainline highway since the Cameron Bluffs wildfire first shut it down on June 6. The closure is scheduled to take place between 8:30 a.m. and 9 p.m., weather permitting.

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It was previously announced that full-day shutdowns of the highway would take place between Aug. 17 and Aug. 24 depending on the weather situation.

The Ministry of Transportation and Infrastructure says the closure will “allow crews to complete the crucial work of removing large, hazardous boulders.”

Highway 4 on Vancouver Island is closing at Cameron Lake on Thursday, August 24 for a boulder removal operation. (BC Government Image)

“This marks the second of two full-day closures, allowing crews to remove approximately a dozen refrigerator-sized boulders as part of the rock-scaling work being done at Angel Rock – the most challenging segment of the bluff,” the ministry explained in a statement released Wednesday afternoon.

It says there were five boulders removed during the first closure, one of them measured as being approximately 1.2 cubic metres in size — this goes along with a reported 10 truckloads of rock debris transported out of the area.

Since partially reopening on June 23, the short section of Highway 4 has only been open to single-lane alternating traffic as crews work to secure the unstable landscape on the bluffs overhead.

“Outside of the full-day closure tomorrow, the highway will continue to be closed for two periods daily until opening, from 9 a.m. until 11:30 a.m., and from 1:30 p.m. until 5 p.m., until the work is completed.”

The ministry says there are no closures scheduled for Highway 4 overnight or on weekends.

An alternate route remains open for those needing to make their way to the west coast, taking travellers between Lake Cowichan and Port Alberni on an extended gravel road detour.