When you want your flooded road fixed, who you gonna call?

The flood Busters. That could be the nickname given to the CN crews that fixed the breach in the CN ballast, a breach that allowed the Skeena to flow over the Yellowhead highway, isolating Prince Rupert from Terrace last week.

CN crews worked feverishly to plug the gap that at one point allowed three kilometres of the highway to be covered by the river. Their hard work gained them a round of congratulations from Don Ramsay a senior transportation official who credits the crews with allowing the Transportation Ministry to get on with rebuilding the roadway.

Which should be a daunting task, there are two separate areas where large holes have opened up, one of which is some 15 feet deep and fifty feet wide.

However, the road is open to traffic, with sections for alternating traffic flows in each direction.

CN workers given thumbs up
DUSTIN QUEZADA
CN WORKERS have managed to block off the flow of water through the railbed and on to Hwy16 west of Prince Rupert.

The Terrace Standard
Jun 10 2007

A SENIOR transportation official is crediting CN workers in helping open Hwy16 between Terrace and Prince Rupert earlier today.

Don Ramsay said the highway would still be flooded by the Skeena River and closed had not CN workers be successful in plugging a huge gap in the railbed along the Shames Flat.

"It was not so much that the water was receding," said Ramsay about the highway opening. "CN managed to plug that dike and after that the water drained away. They did really good work."

He said CN workers used giant sandbags to plug a breach estimated to be 30 to 40 metres in size.

Water began pouring through the CN railbed the afternoon of June 5 as a surging Skeena River placed heavy pressure against it. The railbed there is above the level of the highway and looks like a dike. CN officials, however, say the ballast foundation permits water to pour through.

At the height of the flood, water covered about nearly 3 kilometres of highway along the Shames Flat.

"As the water shot through that breach it reached the other side of the highway, the north side. It then created a channel on that side and worked its way along, covering one lane. Then it worked its way back, covering the other lane," said Ramsay.

The highway was open to single lane traffic noon today.

As it is, there are two large holes in the roadway and traffic is being diverted around them.
"One of the holes is 15 feet deep and 50 feet wide," said Ramsay.

The noon hour opening officially means no northwest highway is now closed. Both the Nass Highway and Hwy16 east and west of Terrace were closed around the same time on June 5, a day after the Skeena began to rise because of melting snow caused by very hot weather.

Although the Skeena is still officially in a flood stage, the level has dropped nearly three metres since Thursday.