B.C. highway flood repair costs expected to balloon to $1 billion | 24CA News

B.C.’s Transportation Ministry is anticipating the worth tag for repairs to main highways broken through the November 2021 floods to develop to roughly $1 billion.

According to Transportation Minister Rob Fleming, greater than $250 million has been sunk into repairing highways one, 5 and eight to date.

The atmospheric rivers precipitated widespread flooding and large destruction to the Coquihalla, the Fraser Canyon and Highway 8.

“We’re at about a quarter of a billion dollars in expenditures so far,” stated Fleming.

“All of those highways are open, the Coquihalla is back to four-lane capacity for the entire duration. We had about 430 damaged sites on those highways and other areas across the province.”

Fleming says the tempo of the non permanent repairs is a trigger for optimism however the work is way from over.

“We think the permanent climate resilient repairs for the three major damaged highways will probably be about one billion dollars,” he stated.

About 70 per cent of that might be eligible for federal catastrophe funding, he added.

The Coquihalla will want flood plains constructed round new spans, within the case of future flooding.

“The highway is being rebuilt to very different specifications to account for what is the new standard, in terms of a once in 200-year flood event, which we expect will become, unfortunately, more common,” stated Fleming.

“That’s the approach we are taking now. New infrastructure is obviously built to a new climate resilient standard. In terms of repairing or retrofitting infrastructure, these are the principles that are a part of living in the 21st century.”

0:36Natural disasters price B.C. financial system as much as $17B in 2021 says new report

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