Highway 20 will remain closed due to Monday’s washout 25 kilometres west of Williams Lake just west of the Sheep Creek Bridge as crews continue to deal unexpected significant groundwater conditions at the site.
“Repairs are taking longer than originally forecast, said Todd Hubner, regional manager with the Ministry of Transportation and Infrastructure Friday.
“It has been very challenging,” Hubner told the Tribune. “We have significant more groundwater there than originally expected and because of that we are having to do some additional engineering to address managing the water. Crews continue to work 24 hours a day, but we haven’t made much progress at this point.”
The regional geotechnical engineer from Kamloops will be returning to the site Friday afternoon, and Hubner said the ministry is “pretty” confident in the direction they are headed.
“We are endeavouring to continue to try and reconstruct Highway 20, of course, and we are going to provide an additional update early next week. We anticipate working throughout the entire weekend.”
There are presently five excavators and a digger working at the site and haul trucks stockpiling riprap there, plus light plants so crews can work in the dark.
Hubner said at this point it is suspected it was an abundance of groundwater that initially caused the slide.
When asked if there was a plugged culvert at the site, he said “even if there were one there, for the amount of material that failed, that wouldn’t cause what we saw out there.”
The detour via Soda Creek Road, Buckskin Road, West Fraser (South) Road, Chilcotin Meldrum Road to Highway 20 continues to be available still and has been treated with a calcium chloride base stabalizer to keep down the dust, Hubner said.
The route is well signed with single lane sections and traffic control and drivers should expect delays.
Yesterday the ninth annual Xeni Gwet’in Wagon youth trip departed from Nemiah Valley to travel to the Williams Lake Stampede.
Hubner said the ministry will work with the group to accommodate the riders through the site somehow.