The operations manager for the Ministry of Transportation in Merritt says there were a few mudslides reported on Highway 1 between Spences Bridge and Lytton on Friday night.

Brad Bushill says it is why the highway was proactively closed, so that highway contractor Yellowhead Road and Bridge could position equipment in areas that were considered to be at risk.

“We closed the highway at 4 o’clock and approximately at 6:00 to 6:30 that evening, we had some challenges on the ditch line in between Spences Bridge and Lytton with water overtopping the road and then numerous smaller in size mudslides with one larger one,” he told NL News.

Some of those larger mudslides where in the Nicomen area, midway between the two communities.

“We realized that after the 2017 fires in the Elephant Hill area north of us, that the rain on these soils there were fire scarred caused quite a bit of havoc and landslides and whatnot,” Bushill added.

“We had some mudslides about three weeks ago that came in with a smaller rain event and they caused us some problems with a lot of people sort of trapped overnight. We saw that coming so we proactively closed it so we wouldn’t have that same situation again.”

Highway 1 reopened at noon on Saturday, Sept. 18, when it was deemed safe to do so after the geotechnical hazard assessment was completed.

Still, locals in the Fraser Canyon are preparing for more potential highway closures in the coming weeks.

The TNRD area director in Spences Bridge, Steven Rice, told NL News that there is ongoing concern that Highway 1 will need to keep closing whenever there is heavy rain in the coming weeks.

“Once you get into November, the slide season is pretty much over for the most part but what’s really troubling now is the rains, and of course the degradation of the foundation from the wildfires,” he said. “You’re going to have more slides because the fires came down the Trans-Canada and the Highway 8 corridors, which is conducive to making the slides more frequent.

“I understand why they made that call on Friday. Because of the wildfires there is more chance of a slide, and there have been quite a few.”

– With files from Colton Davies

Now open!
Crews have worked to reopen Highway 1.

Via @DriveBC – #BCHwy1 Now open between #Lytton and #SpencesBridge. Please drive with care. pic.twitter.com/qwEMDRNxqM

— BC Transportation (@TranBC) September 18, 2021