Flooding damage closes Malahat Highway at night for repairs

Photo: Ministry of Transportation

The Malahat Highway near Victoria will be closed nightly until Monday to allow crews to repair extensive damage caused by heavy rain and flooding.

Single-lane, alternating traffic, which started Tuesday morning, will be allowed at other times. Traffic will alternate going north and south at 30-minute intervals.

The route is the main connector between the provincial capital and areas to the north on Vancouver Island.

Huge volumes of water that crossed the Malahat at Tunnel Hill caused road and bank instability.

Janelle Staite, South Coast representative for the Ministry of Transportation, said problems arose when debris from the rock face started to plug the culverts that typically carry water under the road.

“So given the volume of water, the magnitude of it, it chose the path of least resistance, which was somewhat under the highway and somewhat over the highway.”

Removal of three segments of roadside barrier allowed some of the water to flush away under the median via “scuppers,” or large drainage holes, she said.

Staite said the ministry continues to advise that only essential traffic use the Malahat for now. “We really want to focus on folks that have to be there as opposed to anything else.”

Aside from the Brentwood Bay-Mill Bay ferry, the only alternative is the Pacific Marine Circle Route, which connects Victoria to Duncan via Sooke, Port Renfrew and Lake Cowichan.

News of the overnight Malahat closures left commercial transportation companies scrambling.

That included ColdStar Solutions, a Langford-based grocery wholesaler and trucking company that hauls food to stores up and down Vancouver Island. CEO Kelly Hawes said the average consumer shouldn’t notice a difference, but moving food will be a challenge. ColdStar usually does most of its shipping at night, but will now be vying for road space with congested daytime traffic.

“It would help if people who don’t have to be on the Malahat don’t travel, so that the people who do have to travel aren’t in lineups longer than they need to be,” said Hawes, adding the closures show the need for an alternative to the Malahat.