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[wildmanyeah]

The picture with the 3 washouts shows that the highway was never designed with any armoring along its sides in the stretch.  I wonder why they never armored it with rip rap

[IronNoggin]

Repairs to B.C.’s Coquihalla Highway will take months, especially during winter: province

https://globalnews.ca/news/8385471/repairs-coquihalla-highway-reopening-timeline/


'We are not out of this by a long shot': Up to 100mm of rain forecast for British Columbia

Cleanup and recovery of property, livestock and infrastructure begins in British Columbia

https://nationalpost.com/news/canada/recovery-work-next-step-in-flooded-b-c-but-more-heavy-rain-expected-next-week

[IronNoggin]

B.C. limits gas purchases to 30L per visit in southern region as flooding impacts supply

B.C.’s public safety minister has enlisted two new provincial orders amid concerns of gas shortages in the province due to the devestating floods that hit southern B.C. this week.

In a news conference Friday (Nov. 19), Public Safety Minister Mike Farnworth announced that non-essential travel will be restricted on all highways impacted by washouts.

This means that highways impacted will be only open to those travelling to get home, as well as commercial and emergency vehicles.

Highways include:

Highway 99: from the junction of Highway 99 and Lillooet River Road to the BC Hydro Seton Lake Campsite access in Lillooet. Only passenger vehicles and commercial vehicles up to 14,500 kilograms will be permitted.
Highway 3: from the junction of Highway 5 and Highway 3 in Hope to the west entrance to Princeton from Highway 3.
Highway 7: from the junction of Highway 7 and Highway 9 in Agassiz to the junction of Highway 7 and Highway 1 in Hope.

Meanwhile, the public will be limited to purchasing 30 litres of gas per visit to gas stations in southwest B.C., Vancouver Island and Sunshine Coast.

Farnworth said there is a reduced but steady supply of gas and province is working with the feds to import gasoline in new ways.

“Carpool, share with a friend, walk, use alternative methods,” Farnworth said, adding to be kind to others.

www.aldergrovestar.com/news/b-c-limits-gas-purchases-to-30l-per-visit-in-southern-region-as-flooding-impacts-supply/

KeRist!!   

[Steelhawk]

lots of those eggs and young salmon will get ground to paste in moving rocks and gravel.

In light of the low return of chum and their subsequent big loss of eggs in the rivers by this huge flood,  should the hatcheries increase their chum egg production if they have more chum in the hatchery than their original target. That will help make up for the loss of eggs in the river.

[Dave]

In light of the low return of chum and their subsequent big loss of eggs in the rivers by this huge flood,  should the hatcheries increase their chum egg production if they have more chum in the hatchery than their original target. That will help make up for the loss of eggs in the river.

At least one hatchery will be increasing production but I would like to see much more emphasis on hatchery chum production from all coastal hatcheries. A very cheap bang for the buck ecosystem boost, imo.

[Morty]

Repairs to B.C.’s Coquihalla Highway will take months, especially during winter: province

https://globalnews.ca/news/8385471/repairs-coquihalla-highway-reopening-timeline/

More like a year...
Considering Coquihalla winter weather, it's going to be months just getting: new engineering, construction plans drawn and approved, and the backfill, foundations and bridge piers secured.  In addition to that there's the pre-cast concrete beams for the bridge. 

I personally know an executive in the pre-cast concrete industry and those big bridges that we commonly see in the washout pictures will require at least 30 huge beams for each direction.  Even when they do have blueprints and specifications they then need to fabricate molds, then pre-load the mold with tensioning cables, pour the concrete, let it cure enough for the huge beam to be pulled from the mold, then re-condition & re-set the mold to pour beam #2....  That can take a few days per pour.  Each beam has to additionally cure at the plant for 28 days before it can be transported to the bridge site.  Multiply that all out for 60 beams.  (when they originally built the highway the plants had designs a year befor the beams were needed)  All that time only gets the beams to the site, there still needs to be: a roadway poured on top, railings, safety barriers,.....

There's very few plants that can make those beams and they're all presently in the midst of contracts for building beams and panels on other projects with timelines.  So even if there were blueprints and spec available soon it could be months before they can even start the first beam.

[Roderick]

Isn't the military good at building temporary bridges? Just a thought.

[Morty]

Isn't the military good at building temporary bridges? Just a thought.

Seems like it would be very challenging to build permanent replacement roadway with temporary structures nearby.
The builders of the actual replacement structures ,are going to need to create, or re-open, temporary gravel extraction pits and works yards as well as at least one each of concrete and asphault plants.

The pricetage for remediating that rainstorm damage is going to make the total COVID related pricetag look small

the New Normal Climate is bad enough now at 1.1 degrees above pre-industrial, and some world leaders are willing to not stop at +1.5 (which IMHO will be worse than today) but they're willing to target +2 or +2-1/2 degrees.

[sugartooth]

More like a year...
Considering Coquihalla winter weather, it's going to be months just getting: new engineering, construction plans drawn and approved, and the backfill, foundations and bridge piers secured.  In addition to that there's the pre-cast concrete beams for the bridge. 

I personally know an executive in the pre-cast concrete industry and those big bridges that we commonly see in the washout pictures will require at least 30 huge beams for each direction.  Even when they do have blueprints and specifications they then need to fabricate molds, then pre-load the mold with tensioning cables, pour the concrete, let it cure enough for the huge beam to be pulled from the mold, then re-condition & re-set the mold to pour beam #2....  That can take a few days per pour.  Each beam has to additionally cure at the plant for 28 days before it can be transported to the bridge site.  Multiply that all out for 60 beams.  (when they originally built the highway the plants had designs a year befor the beams were needed)  All that time only gets the beams to the site, there still needs to be: a roadway poured on top, railings, safety barriers,.....

There's very few plants that can make those beams and they're all presently in the midst of contracts for building beams and panels on other projects with timelines.  So even if there were blueprints and spec available soon it could be months before they can even start the first beam.

Many of those bridges are constructed using steel girders.

[Bavarian Raven]

Seems like it would be very challenging to build permanent replacement roadway with temporary structures nearby.
The builders of the actual replacement structures ,are going to need to create, or re-open, temporary gravel extraction pits and works yards as well as at least one each of concrete and asphault plants.

The pricetage for remediating that rainstorm damage is going to make the total COVID related pricetag look small

the New Normal Climate is bad enough now at 1.1 degrees above pre-industrial, and some world leaders are willing to not stop at +1.5 (which IMHO will be worse than today) but they're willing to target +2 or +2-1/2 degrees.

You're optimistic. Likely we're looking at 2.5 to 3 degrees min by end of century. The cost (never mind the damage ) will be unthinkable.

[RalphH]

Nice graph there, looks like 2006 was worst, Good to hear that Salmon does bounce back quickly! Certainly got to know the critical importance of these side channels

the 2 high water discharge events on the graph were in 2003 and 2006 or  2007. Looks like 2003 was the big largest followed by another major flood within 3 or 4 years.

 Here is a news story from 2009.

https://www.pressreader.com/canada/vancouver-sun/20091116/281505042301686

another from 2006

https://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/national/rage-ruin-remain-as-river-retreats/article1109486/

[IronNoggin]

Route out of southern B.C. closed again due to washout

A main route out of southern British Columbia is closed again due to a washout, officials say.

Highway 3 is closed in both directions between Hope and Princeton. An assessment is in progress, but there is currently no estimated time of reopening.

The route also known as Crowsnest Highway had only just reopened.

https://bc.ctvnews.ca/route-out-of-southern-b-c-closed-again-due-to-washout-no-estimated-time-of-reopening-1.5676592

[DanL]

the 2 high water discharge events on the graph were in 2003 and 2006 or  2007. Looks like 2003 was the big largest followed by another major flood within 3 or 4 years.

This made me curious about previous high water events as I sorta recall some big occurrences, but no particular details. Downloaded some historical annual daily max data from wateroffice.ec.gc.ca to see. The data goes back somewhat further, but I limited it to ~1950



Based on last week's peak flow of ~488 m³/s it looked like it was exceeded three times in the last 70ish years though it did get close at least a handful of other times. 2003 was indeed the largest at over 600 m³/s, an additional 25% more flow than this weeks event.

An acquaintance recently mentioned he remembers a pretty significant flood in Chilliwack from when he lived there (much) younger, and guessed it could have been in the 70's. '75 and '80 had big events which could very well be what he experienced...

edit: updated to show which annual max flows occurred in the spring/summer (Apr-Sep) vs fall/winter (Oct-Mar). Presumably from freshet vs rainfall.

[bigsnag]

Thanks for the graph...
95% of the people here probably only worry about whether if their fishing holes got washed out, unfortunately.

[roeman]

Thanks for the graph...
95% of the people here probably only worry about whether if their fishing holes got washed out, unfortunately.

What an ignorant comment.
Who are you to state what people on any site are thinking.  People you dont even know or have had any interaction with.
Did you show up at the Barrow Town pump station in the middle of the night to help sand bag.
Have you done anything constructive to help any one affected by the flooding.
Or just sitting in your warm house making stupid comments