METRO VANCOUVER - A mudslide hit Highway 1 Wednesday, trapping at least one driver and leaving work crews scrambling to remove debris and eliminate the possibility of further victims.
Front-end loaders and trucks worked overnight on the stretch of highway between Chilliwack and Hope to clear the road.
By early Thursday, all four lanes of Highway 1 had reopened to traffic, according to the ministry.
"It's open, it's safe," ministry spokesman Jeff Knight said on Thursday morning.
He said he didn't expect any slide-related traffic delays along the highway during the long weekend.
There will be someone monitoring the slide site throughout the weekend, he said, adding that no further road work is scheduled for the location until Tuesday.
The slide left a mess five metres deep and 60 metres wide across the eastbound lanes of the highway, about 100 metres from the Herrling Island exit.
“We weren’t able to see that there was [anyone else trapped] by foot, but the equipment, as it begins to move the debris will make a determination if there’s anyone else impacted,” said RCMP Sgt. Peter Thiessen.
“The mudslide is large enough that it could easily cover a number of vehicles and we wouldn’t know it until we uncovered them.”
A woman whose vehicle was flipped over and pushed against the median escaped with minor injuries, said B.C. Attor
ney-General and Chilliwack-Hope MLA Barry Penner. Penner toured the site Wednesday afternoon and said cleanup crews began work at about 3:45 p.m., after geotechnical experts concluded the area was safe.
“I remember slides there back in the 1980s and a lot of money and effort has been spent to widen the creek beds to enlarge their capacity to handle wide flows [of water],” said Penner, who grew up in the area. “But sometimes Mother Nature throws more at us than we can handle.”
Ministry of Transportation spokesman Jeff Knight said crews would monitor the adjacent slope’s stability as they work through Wednesday night.
Paul Henderson, a reporter for the Chilliwack Times, tried to reach the area from the Fraser River below the highway, but could only see the portion of the steep hill where the slide originated. “Up at the top it looks like a cliff just broke away, at least 50 feet wide,” Henderson said. “And there’s a giant swath of rock and trees and mud that rolled down the hill.”
From early Wednesday afternoon the highway remained closed in both directions as Ministry of Highway engineers and geological technicians assessed slope stability from a helicopter to determine if rescue operations could resume. Only a small amount of mud made it onto the westbound lanes, Penner said.
Reports that 20 CN rail cars were “stuck” in the mud are incorrect, said CN spokeswoman Kelli Svendsen.
“No cars were derailed,” she said. “The mudslide stopped our train. Whether or not there was some mud or debris under the track I don’t know.”
Svendsen said the slide stopped a westbound container train carrying consumer goods and that CN crews were working to clear up the track — located below the westbound highway lanes — but there is no timetable for a return to rail service.
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