It’s a one lane forestry road, complete with pull offs, potholes and precipitous drops, it adds four hours to your travel time and at the moment it’s the only road access between Terrace and points east. And by the way, it’s not particularly recommended that you travel along it.
The Cranberry Connector is a roughly cut road through the wilderness that requires at least a four wheel drive truck for passage.
Estimates have it that it would cost some 50 million dollars to upgrade the road to two way travel on a gravel base, a cost that the Ministry of Highways doesn’t feel is warranted considering the anticipated light rate of travel on those days when Highway 16 may be open.
It’s an opinion that isn’t shared by a number of people in the Northwest who point out that the Highway seems to suffer more and more frequent closures of late lasting anywhere from a few hours to a few days. Having an alternative route in and out of the region many feel is something that is needed.
Trucks have apparently been making use of the road to move material from east to west, but for the average car driver the road is not considered as a suitable alternative to the now closed highway.
While crews continue to work on the giant mud and rock slide east of Terrace, there still has been no estimated time provided as to when even one lane access may be secured.
Motorists are advised to
consult the Drive BC website frequently for further updates, keeping a mindful eye on the recommendation that travel on the Cranberry connector is done at their own risk.
No upgrade for Cranberry Connector
By Tom Fletcher
The Northern Sentinel
May 30 2007
The province isn't going to upgrade the Cranberry Connector, a logging road serving as the only alternate route to Highway 16 east linking Terrace and other northwest communities with the rest of the province.
A huge landslide covered Highway 16 about 37 kilometres east of Terrace early Monday morning. As of Wednesday noon there was still no target set for reopening even one lane of the highway, because concern about further instability was slowing cleanup work, Transportation Minister Kevin Falcon said.
The ministry has graded and graveled a 50 km stretch of logging road from Cranberry Junction on Highway 37 through the Nass Valley as an emergency option for drivers, but Falcon said there won't be any further upgrading on the one-lane radio-assisted route to make it more accessible for vehicles.
"It would be extraordinarily expensive, probably in the $50 million range, just to provide a graveled, two-lane road," Falcon said. "We did a business case analysis in 2004, and there is just no justification for the dollars that would need to be spent, especially given that it would have very, very low volume of traffic."
Falcon encouraged people to stay off the road unless absolutely necessary, adding that it shouldn't be attempted without a four-wheel-drive truck.
