The Ministry of Transportation and Infrastructure has pulled experts and technical workers from regional offices around the province to repair over 100 road sites in the Cariboo.
Minister of Transportation and Infrastructure, Rob Fleming, said they are working hard to quickly fix roadways that are damaged and to prevent damage in the future so families can be safe on the roads in the Cariboo.
“This is our number one priority right now in the Ministry of Transportation in terms of making sure that people have reliable road networks that we can get in and where possible right now to fix roads as quickly as we can.”
Fleming added that they do know that just the extent of the damage, some of the sites are going to require significant investments so they have also contacted the Federal government.
We asked the Minister if he had ever seen a call to action like this.
“I think last year was a significant season of freshet”. Fleming said, “200 roads were damaged. We were able to repair, I think about 87 and a half percent of those roads so 175 of those sites were repaired. We’re hoping to be able to make as quick progress this year as well. 40 of the washouts and disrupted roadworks have been repaired now”.
Fleming said he wants Cariboo residents to know that the government is working with local officials and local contractors to get on top of things as quickly as they can and that it’s going to be a very busy summer in the Cariboo region making good on getting roads to a functioning quality state of repair wherever and whenever they can.
A District Operations Centre (DOC) was established in Williams Lake on May 10th, 2021, to support this emergency and facilitate a coordinated response.
During the spring freshet, you can go to DriveBC.ca – click the “BC flooding information” link in the sidebar and see a list of Cariboo side roads closed or impacted.
The site includes photos of work underway to repair roads.