Beginning this week the Ministry of Transportation will ban big rigs from using the far left lane in both directions on Snowshed Hill.
Southern Interior executive director Mike Lorimer says depending on how successful the pilot project is it could be extended to other three lane stretches of the Coquihalla in the future.
“So we’re trying this on the Snowshed Hill, from the Box Canyon chain-up to the top of the hill at Zopkios. Very short section, it’s a three-lane section of road, so that still leaves two lanes for commercial vehicles to use. And we’re going to pilot it through the winter.”
Why the Snowshed Hill?
“What we saw last year, about 35 sort of lengthy closures, we saw 33 involve commercial vehicles. One of the things that was common in those, is we ended up in a scenario where all three lanes on the Snowshed Hill were blocked.”
Lorimer says that not only blocked cars and trucks but also snowplows and other emergency vehicles.
He says they will phase in the change before levying a $112-dollar fine for truckers who don’t follow the rules.