Highway maintenance contractor Yellowhead Road and Bridge (YRB) has been busy cleaning up recent flooding, slides and road washouts including one on Highway 22 on the Rossland hill, and the Bombi and Kootenay Passes.
While residents warned of a Hwy. 22 washout on social media a couple weeks ago, there wasn’t much that could be done as the runoff increased and quickly eroded the hill around an old culvert.
“There is a culvert at the location where a sinkhole formed,” said Yellowhead Road and Bridge (YRB) manager Scott Maxwell. “So our best estimate is that the culvert in the road base itself actually had a hole in it essentially, which probably developed over years. So material was dropping in and it created a sinkhole.”
The road started to erode in earnest on April 30 and by May 1 a large section of the southeast bound lane was gone. The sinkhole has since increased, so both southeast lanes have washed out and it is now two-lane traffic with the northwest bound lane crossing over onto the shoulder.
YRB is the provincial contractor for the Kootenay-Boundary and is in charge of highway maintenance and repairs.
According to Maxwell, work is ongoing on Hwy 22, as they replace the culvert and rebuild the road.
“We’ve dug out the entire sinkhole, but now the entire culvert system needs to be replaced,” said Maxwell. “You can see the old system, when there was only two lanes there, and the additional two lanes were added on, so we are installing a whole new system.”
Maxwell anticipates there will be traffic delays but two-lane access will be available, and the new culvert and road work completed in the next two to three weeks.
“There maybe some times where we are single-lane alternating and so you will see traffic control on-site, but for the most part we should be able to keep two lanes moving.”
Maxwell says the four lanes will be open with a gravel base within two weeks, but is dependent on the availability on the paving companies to finish the job.
They will wait for the forecasted rains to subside this weekend before installing the culvert, and will direct efforts to other events that may occur due to the increased rain and runoff. Hot weather is expected to accelerate snowmelt through to Friday, followed by heavy rainfall.
As for the Bombi, Maxwell said that something upstream gave way and a large volume of water blocked one of the culverts, eroding the shoulder of the highway for about 1 km. Fortunately it occurred in a three-lane section about 15 km east of Castlegar.
YRB is waiting for the go ahead from the Ministry of Transportation to ensure safe access.
“Once we get clearance for there, I anticipate we will be able to get it to single-lane alternating some time today (May 4), probably in the afternoon at some point, pending the ministry’s assessment.
“Best scenario is that we will have traffic moving through some time today.”
The Salmo-Creston Pass on Highway 3 is not part of the Kootenay-Boundary contract, but Maxwell said he spoke to his YRB Kootenay counterpart about the massive slide that occurred on Wednesday (May 3) afternoon, blocking access from both directions.
“Most of that one seems to be deposited on the highway, so basically once the crews get the green light (from the Ministry) to get loaders in there to clear it off, it shouldn’t take too long, barring that the highway underneath is in good condition.”
Read: Flooding, mudslide closes Highway 3 at Bombi and Kootenay Passes