Hwy. 4 at Kennedy Lake is closed in both directions as crews clear large amounts of rock debris from the only road link between Ucluelet/Tofino and the rest of Vancouver Island. (MOTI)

By NanaimoNewsNOW Staff

Highway closed

Crews provide travel window for Hwy. 4 travellers after rockslide closes road

Jan 23, 2020 | 7:40 AM

PORT ALBERNI — Crews continue to work to clear a damaging rock slide from Hwy. 4 that has cut off Vancouver Island’s rural west coast ports of Tofino and Ucluelet from the rest of the Island.

A Ministry of Transportation and Infrastructure (MOTI) statement on Jan. 24 said the road would partially re-open between 12 p.m. and 8 p.m. Friday evening to essential travel only.

The road would be restricted during those hours to passenger vehicles and light pickup trucks.

“Once these vehicles have cleared, a portable bridge will be installed to open the highway to regular traffic as quickly and safely as possible,” the statement to NanaimoNewsNOW said.

Vehicles will be screened at Sproat Lake for westbound traffic, and the Tofino/Ucluelet junction for eastbound.

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Once the backlog of vehicles has been cleared, crews will begin installing a temporary bridge to allow larger vehicles access to and from the west coast of Vancouver Island.

The Ministry anticipates that work will require another lengthy closure of the road.

Scheduled blasting overnight Wednesday, Jan. 22 sent an unknown amount of rocks onto a section of road, where a substantial and ongoing upgrade project to widen the highway continues.

Crews worked overnight to re-build the road base.

“While some progress was made, the base did not build as quickly as project engineers had estimated. Overnight, the decision was made to bridge the damaged section of highway to open it as soon as possible,” the statement said.

Motorists trying to get through are advised to check DriveBC for updates.

Rock blasting in the area for the project caused several lenghty closures last summer.

The two-year, $40 million project is expected to be complete this summer.

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