News Projects Roads & Paving
Bridge repair initiative on Coquihalla Highway reaches home stretch

HOPE, B.C. – Nearly two years after record flooding devastated over 20 sites across a 130-kilometre stretch of the Coquihalla Highway (Highway 5), a project to restore six bridges has reached two-thirds completion – and at an impressive pace.

The flooding occurred on Nov. 14 and 15, 2021, with a new replacement bridge having been built on Highway 5 every 100 days since the incident.

The entire rebuild project has an estimated cost of $350 million, with the majority of funding coming from the federal government’s Disaster Financial Assistance Program. A major focus of the rebuild is the prevention of similar disaster in future extreme weather incidents, which includes deeper pilings and reinforcements.

The fast pace of the bridgework led to the new Bottletop Northbound Bridge and Jessica Southbound Bridge being reopened for traffic this past June, with the southbound and northbound bridges still undergoing construction.