It’ll certainly be weeks and not days before the Ministry of Transportation and Infrastructure can repair the damage on the West Fraser Road.
That from Brad Moores,the Operations Manager in Quesnel…
“Overall the time frame to repair the one big washout on West Fraser Road. That’s about 600 meters north of the bridge. We’ve lost about 150 meters of road at this stage of the game and the erosion is continuing.
Moores says the water has to go down before they can determine what is the best fix is for that section.
He says two areas that require immediate rip rap are the Narcosli Bridge, where the water has attacked the upstream and downstream corners of the bridge, as well as a few kilometres north of the bridge.
That work began yesterday.
Looking at some of the other areas of concern in the North Cariboo, Moores says a portion of Batnuni Road has failed about 9.4 kilometres west of Blackwater Road….
“We have an 80-foot wide hole in the road from the water eroding through the road base. An assessment will be done this week.”
He says Honolulu Road has a hole in the road that is about 25 feet deep and Baezaeko Road is under a foot of water.
Moores says he’s never seen water this high or this amount of water in his more than 20 years in Quesnel.
He says it’s also one of the worst years for damage.
Getting back to West Fraser Road, Moores is asking that people respect the road closed signs…
“Monday night i had to chase five vehicles that passed two road closed barricades. Those people should not be in that area, it is high risk and is only going to compromise their safety.”