As of 2 pm, Highway 16 was still closed to traffic east of Prince Rupert and west of Terrace due to a threat of avalanche along the route.The Drive BC website had listed as with high confidence a reopening time of 2 pm, but the avalanche gates to the east of the city remained closed as of 2 pm.
Highway 37A in the Stewart area has also been closed due to the threat of avalanches.
Troubles extended to the Queen Charlottes as freezing rain had also closed Highway 16 between Skidegate and Masset for a while.
Update: The Terrace Standard posted an advisory on its webpage at 2:25 today
Road to open at 2:45 p.m.
Terrace Standard
February 7, 2008
THE ROAD to Prince Rupert is expected to open at 2:45 p.m. following an intensive period of work to eliminate avalanche hazards.
It has been closed since yesterday.
Aside from transportation ministry and CN avalanche experts at the location, Nechako Northcoast road maintenance crews are now on scene clearing snow that had fallen overnight.
“We’ve had about 25 centimetres of snow out there since last night so we’ll need a couple of hours to clean it up,” said Peter Lansdowne from Nechako Northcoast, the area’s road maintenance company, earlier today.
He estimated crews cleared approximately 20km of highway once the all clear from avalanche experts had been given.
As it is, Nechako crews have been dealing with several smaller avalanches at Exchamsiks, which is on the Terrace side of the larger avalanche threat.
Meanwhile, the road to Stewart remains closed because of an avalanche hazard along that route.
Traffic along Hwy37 North was halted last night after being opened for a period of time after an earlier closure
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