Lane opens on section of Trans-Canada highway buried by B.C. rock slide
Traffic is moving again along a section of the Trans-Canada Highway in Yoho National Park in B.C. blocked by a rock slide since Monday.
Parks Canada confirms an alternating single lane opened at 8 p.m. MT Thursday.
"Motorists should expect heavy traffic congestion, a reduced speed zone of 30 km/h and travel on a 200-metre stretch of gravel surface through the rock slide site," Parks Canada officials said in a press release.
The section of the highway will be closed again for about two hours on Friday afternoon for more blasting of rubble. The exact time will be posted on Drive BC's website.
The highway has been closed in both directions since the slide happened about 16 km west of Field, B.C., while contractors were preparing holes for rock blasting.
The slide brought about 10,000 cubic metres of rock onto the road. Two workers went to hospital with injuries, but were later released.
"Early indications from geotechnical assessments indicate that the slope failed below the drilling and blasting elevation along natural seams in the shale bedrock," Parks Canada said.
Travellers heading to B.C. were redirected at Castle Junction in Banff National Park, heading southwest on Highway 93 through Kootenay National Park to Radium and then north on Highway 95 to meet the Trans-Canada again at Golden.
Slide costs trucking industry $75,000 a day, industry says
For commercial truckers, it was an unwelcome detour that wracked up another 100 kilometres through mountainous terrain.
On Wednesday, Andrew Barnes of the Alberta Motor Transport Association said the closure was expensive for his industry.
"It is affecting about 400 trucks a day and the trucks are taking the recommended south detour, which is about an hour-and-a-half. When you convert that to economics, we are looking at about $75,000 a day to industry," he said.
Truck driver Dan Bosje said road closures can cause huge problems for his industry as they are on tight schedules.
"It is really important. Everything we do is on a schedule and something like road closures just makes it even worse," Bosje told CBC News from Calgary's Roadking Truck Stop.
It's also taken a toll in Field, where supplies were running low.
Everett Cooper, the chef at the Truffle Pig Bistro and Lodge in Field, says he and his staff feel a bit trapped.
"It's hard. The hotel slows right down, this is traditionally our slower time of year," he said.
"Our food delivery service couldn't make it through yesterday, so our food supplies get low and we just deal the best we can."
He says it's just a matter of making the best of the situation.
"We basically try and prepare as best we can. Consider the option of closing down the restaurant. We don't get food deliveries when the road is closed. Try and make do with what we have, prioritize. Still try and take care of the customer," Cooper explained.
He estimates he is losing about $2,000 per day in sales.
"You just have to put up with it, deal with it. The roads to Vancouver close all of the time, once you get into the snow. The Coquihalla and Rogers Pass close on a regular basis, so it is something we are kind of used to in a way."
