Highway 4 at Kennedy Hill will reopen to essential travel only between noon and 8 p.m. today, Friday, Jan. 24.

Travel will be restricted to passenger vehicles and light pickups only.

Vehicles will be screened at the Tofino/Ucluelet junction and at Sproat Lake. Larger vehicles will be turned around. Heavy loads, trucks with duallies, and vehicles towing trailers will not be let through. Motorists are advised to obey the instructions of traffic control personnel.

This is a limited opening for essential travel only. 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 Ministry of Transportation and Infrastructure estimates a lengthy closure to install the bridge. The ministry will update the estimated closure window for the bridge installation as soon as possible.

The contractor worked non-stop through the night to build up the road base after a portion of the shoulder and travelling surface sloughed away. The ministry thanks Emil Anderson Construction and its crew for the round-the-clock effort to reopen the highway.

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 damage to Highway 4 was caused by an unexpectedly large volume of rock falling on rain-saturated ground during a scheduled blast early on Thursday, Jan. 23, as part of the Highway 4 – Kennedy Hill Safety Improvement project. The highway was closed to traffic at the time of the blast.

The ministry thanks area residents and other people who rely on the highway for their patience and understanding.

When completed later this year, the Highway 4 – Kennedy Hill Safety Improvement Project will create a safer, more reliable connection between Port Alberni and the west coast of Vancouver Island.

Learn More:

• Call 1 855 451-7152 to listen to the travel information hotline message, updated daily during construction.
• General project information and traffic schedules are available online: www.gov.bc.ca/highway4kennedyhill
• Follow @DriveBC and #BCHwy4 on Twitter, and visit: www.drivebc.ca