Vancouver Island’s Highway 4 plans to reopen both lanes next week, scheduled closures to continue
Highway 4 on Vancouver Island is on track to intermittently reopen both lanes at Cameron Lake before the Labour Day long weekend after the removal of 1,000 tonnes of debris.
The Ministry of Transportation and Infrastructure says the mainline highway will be shut down on Tuesday, but assures that it should be back to two operating lanes after.
Although both lanes will be open shortly, the ministry says the highway will require further rock-scaling work past Tuesday’s closure. Until the work is complete, it says Highway 4 will close twice on weekdays — from 9 a.m. until 11:30 a.m., and again from 1:30 p.m. until 5 p.m. During these closures, crews will finish installing roadside barriers, signage, catchment fencing, paving, and line marking.
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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 9 a.m. and 5 p.m.
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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.
This announcement comes after the second of two full daytime closures this week — crews used the time to remove what the ministry describes as “a dozen refrigerator-sized boulders from Angel Rock, the most challenging segment of the bluff.”
Crews installed 700 metres of roadside barriers and worked to resurface sections of the damaged highway. The additional closure on Tuesday is taking place because crews feel that Angel Rock needs extra rock-scaling work before giving the highway the go-ahead to fully reopen in time for the long weekend.
Recent highway work saw the removal of “approximately 200 dangerous trees and 1,000 tonnes of rock-scaling debris” from the area along the highway and the bluffs overhead. Photos from earlier in the week showed multiple large boulders and rock debris along the roadway.
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Highway 4 on Vancouver Island is closing at Cameron Lake on Thursday, August 24 for a boulder removal operation. (BC Government Image)
An alternate route for Vancouver Island’s Highway 4 remains open for those needing to make their way to the west coast while road closures are in effect, taking travellers between Lake Cowichan and Port Alberni on an extended gravel road detour. After work on the highway is finished, the ministry says it will remove all of the temporary detour-related signs and checkpoints.
