Rebuild of B.C. highway destroyed in 2021 far from complete

Highway 8 in B.C.'s Interior is rough — resident Steve Rice says it's about half gravel, half pavement, and it gets a washboard effect quickly and often. 

"As summer approaches, I've noticed the washboarding is more frequent. Within a week to two weeks, it really needs a grate again," he told CBC's Sarah Penton, host of Radio West. 

"It's a tough situation."

Prior to November 2021, the highway was fully paved and a common way for people to travel between Spences Bridge, about 178 kilometres northeast of Vancouver, and Merritt, about 53 kilometres away, as the crow flies. 

It was destroyed when an atmospheric river dropped torrential rain on much of southern B.C., washing out that road and parts of several other major highways.

While construction on other highways was completed long ago, it hasn't even begun on Highway 8, and area residents are starting to wonder when they'll be able to use their road again.  

'Twilight Zone'

Rice, a farmer, said the closure has been tough for business. 

"The folks on Highway 8 that do business, like our fruit stand and others, we have had no income, you know, for a couple of years," he said. Not to mention that they lost business due to the COVID-19 pandemic the year before that. 

"It's really frustrating."

But now, Rice said the area is like something out of The Twilight Zone — because the Nicola River isn't where it was before. 

"It's really strange because if you leave Spences Bridge and head to Merritt and you go, say, past Osprey Farms, it's now on the other side of the river. The farm itself has not moved, but the river has been rerouted," Rice said.

"If you're familiar with that highway and you drive it, your mouth just sort of hangs open going wow."

That change and the highway's proximity to the river — which wasn't an issue for the Coquihalla and Trans Canada highways  — is why the rebuild has taken so long, according to Jennifer Fraser, executive director of the province's Highway Reinstatement program.

"We're trying to get a handle on what is happening from a hydrologic perspective because that's been completely disrupted," she said. 

Following extreme weather in November 2021, Fraser said the Nicola River has increased in height by an additional metre.

"It may seem there's not a lot of construction going on, [but] there certainly is a lot of engineering that's going on in the background so that we can understand what sort of hydrological system we are working with now." 

However, she says she remains confident construction will begin this summer. 

The work will be done in phases, with a plan to be finished in 2027. 

Fraser said the final cost of the project is unknown.

The province will also be sending out a monthly update to people in the area so they know exactly what's going on, Fraser said. 

"I don't anticipate anything like that holding up Highway 8."