The BC Government is easing load restrictions on Highway 99 at the Ten Mile Slide.

Commercial vehicles and tour buses under 27,000 kg will be allowed on the highway after extensive geotechnical assessments, following the recent installation of soil anchors.

Lillooet Mayor Peter Busse is overjoyed.

“We keep our fingers crossed,” he said. “It’s leading-edge technology in terms of their monitoring which I am most impressed with.”

“We’re hopeful that we can keep at least the bus transportation and we’re obviously anxious to get our veneer and logging trucks going down that road again. It doesn’t appear we will be able to do it with this phase completed.”

Phase One of the project saw around 40 soil anchors put into the mountain to improve stability, in addition to the 30 installed in 2017.

“They may have to revert [road restrictions] back and we’re with that understanding,” Busse noted. “The next phase will hopefully decrease that again, and we get back to that 100 per cent.”

“It’s still a single lane, not sure how the bus transportation people will take that, but it’s controlled at either end and we’ll see.”

Busse adds the restrictions have impacted everyone from the Xaxli’p community, to local businesses, the trucking and tourism industries, as well as the general public.

Phase two of the project is expected to begin this summer, and be done in the fall of 2020.