Drivers coming to and from the West Coast of Vancouver Island will soon need to schedule their travels around daily, and eventually nightly, road closures.
From Monday May 28 to Friday June 1, Highway 4, between Port Alberni and the Tofino-Ucluelet junction will be closed from 5-7 a.m., noon-1 p.m. and 4-5 p.m.
The closures are the kick off of an anticipated $38 million, two-year, project that will straighten out a tricky 1.6 kilometre stretch near Kennedy Hill and remove a rock wall currently hanging over the highway. The project is being paid for by the provincial and federal governments with $24.6 million coming from the province and $13.5 million coming from Ottawa.
Project coordinator David Gourley recently released the upcoming closure schedule from the week of May 28 and said commuters should expect delays of up to 30 minutes outside of the posted closure times. He added there will be no closures over the weekend of June 2-3, but drivers can expect the closure schedule to start again on June 4.
The work will eventually include nightly closures on the highway and Gourlay told the Westerly News on Thursday that he expects to provide an update on when those nightly closures will begin in roughly two weeks.
B.C.’s Ministry of Transportation and infrastructure has launched a website to keep commuters updated on the closures and anyone looking for daily updates can call 1-855-451-7152.
