Significant rainfall forced closure of Hwy. 4 on Wednesday, while gusty winds have also interrupted required work near Cameron Lake. (BC Transportation)

By Alex Rawnsley

worksite safety

Rain and wind events ‘impacts us significantly’: crews on Hwy. 4 at Cameron Lake

Aug 10, 2023 | 10:01 AM

NANAIMO — Vehicles are flowing again on the regular schedule along Hwy. 4, however there remains no firm timeline of when the lone central Island link to the west coast will be fully restored.

Overnight rainfall on Tuesday, Aug. 8 forced the closure of Hwy. 4 at Cameron Lake just after midnight on Wednesday, Aug. 9. The precipitation triggered job site rules which forced the closure of the worksite after 10 millimetres fell in 12 hours.

Ashok Padi, ministry of transportation and infrastructure executive director of the South Coast region, said the rules are in place to provide extra safety elements for workers.

“It’s just basically concern there might be debris that could come down. There was no actual event, there’s no concerns in terms of anything that did come down. It’s done out of an abundance of caution.”

Previous closures due to wind were also due to similar rules.

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Padi said this week’s rainfall was the first notable precipitation in the area since the Cameron Bluffs wildfire broke out in early June.

“We do definitely want to make sure there’s no concerns with any fire event when the soils are hydrophobic and there’s concerns that any amount of precipitation and saturation will bring materials down.”

In a bid to balance traffic flows with the work required to fully re-open the highway, a daily closure schedule was established in late July.

Hwy. 4 is closed on weekdays from 9 a.m. to 11:30 p.m., then again from 1:30 p.m. to 5 p.m.

Traffic is cleared in both directions during the midday openings, then proceeds as single-lane alternating in the evening and overnight hours.

The limited work schedule means it’s tough to get back on track when things don’t go as planned.

“Over the course of our work, we have lost a few days…obviously (Wednesday) and we’ve lost a few days previously to wind events that exceeded thresholds on site for safety reasons as well so we have to add that onto the work schedule now,” Padi said.

He was unable to provide a timeline on when the road would fully re-open, which was initially scheduled to be mid-August.

Padi mentioned it’s likely work will continue past next week but said the weather forecast for the next seven days is “favourable” to work continuing uninterrupted.

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