 and welcome to today's availability any reporters who'd like to ask a question please press star one to enter the queue you will be limited to one question and one follow-up with that I will hand it over to minister of transportation and infrastructure Rob Fleming good morning I'm grateful to be joining you from the territories of the Lacongan speaking people the Songhees and Esquimalt First Nations and today I'm going to be providing an update on some of the most heavily damaged highways from the November storm events specifically Highway 1 through the Fraser Canyon Highway 5 the Coca-Cola Highway 8 connecting Merritt and Spence's bridge and I'll touch upon Highway 99 as well I first want to begin with discussion around the current state of emergency in British Columbia this will expire at midnight tonight it had remained in place while we monitored the Coca-Cola after it reopened to essential traffic which was primarily commercial vehicles and of course that highway was reopened to essential traffic on December 20th after tremendous efforts by our road crews and by BC BC's road builders since then we've been able to monitor the traffic flow and the repaired highway and it has performed very well we have had of course some weather related issues with a strong winter of heavy snow events however the areas where temporary repairs are in place are functioning well we're now in a position to safely open the Coca-Cola to regular vehicle traffic and that will happen beginning tomorrow this will be a much more convenient route for people going to and from the lower mainland to the interior and it represents another significant milestone in our recovery from the devastating storms with that though drivers must be aware that this is not the Coca-Cola as we know it there are some changes electrical electric vehicle charging stations remain out of service due to damage from the storms and some rest areas are closed some sections of the Coca-Cola are two lane traffic only with one lane in each direction and multiple speed reductions are in place for everyone's safety it's imperative that all motorists obey the posted speed limits and do not pass in these sections the drive between hope and merit will take approximately 45 minutes longer than normal so people will need to be patient and budget that into their travel time safety for motorists is paramount to to that end there will be continue there will continue to be rather increased enforcement from the RCMP and commercial vehicle safety enforcement CVSE on this route to ensure that drivers are being safe and that they're driving to the winter conditions the Coca-Cola as we all know is a steep mountainous route and we've seen how conditions can change quickly with severe winter weather people should only be on the highway if their vehicle have good winter tires a full tank of gas and they have food and water and warm winter clothes with them as with all travel in the winter people should check drive BC before they leave because delays or closures can happen on short notice I'm going to move now to highway 99 also tomorrow Wednesday we'll be removing the weight restriction on highway 99 between Lillewitt and Pemberton this means that larger commercial vehicles will be allowed on the highway as they were before the November storms this is going to be very helpful for truckers who need to move goods within the local area however because of the steep and winding terrain that is part of highway 99 it is not a preferred corridor for heavy commercial vehicles and should only be used for local commercial traffic moving to highway one Fraser Canyon we've had good progress on highway one through the Fraser Canyon despite what we've encountered with high snowfall and cold temperatures over the past few weeks last week on Thursday we opened a portion of highway one the stretch between Kanaka bar and just south of Litton and Spence's bridge significant work from our amazing highway crews has now been completed in that section at Tank Hill a temporary detour including an at-grade rail crossing is built where a landslide sheared off about 70 meters of the highway and damaged the railway above it at the Nickeman bridge a single lane temporary bridge is installed upstream of the existing damaged bridge and at the Gladwin culvert site new culverts are installed and it is restored to two lanes of paved highway weather has been impacting work on the last remaining section through the Fraser Canyon which is between Boothroyd and Kanaka bar but crews are back in there now the Avalanche danger has subsided and at Jackass mountain we have a single lane 260 foot temporary bridge being installed where a large section of the two lane road was completely wiped out because this long single lane bridge which is in a known Avalanche zone when this section opens drivers will have a pilot car service here for about four kilometers we are confident in the ministry that we can get that section open by the end of January and this again will open up another route connecting the lower main land with the interior and the north and will further help the province with the movement of people and goods similar to the coca-cola though when the highway one does fully reopen it will not be as it was there will be lengthy delays with additional travel times of up to two hours or more and load lengths restricted to 25 meters this is due to continued construction activity we will have crews when we reopen those sections we will have sections of single alternating traffic and at grade rail crossing so trains will be crossing while motorist weight and and we will have ongoing Avalanche control so those are the caveats of the progress on highway one but it is amazing work and we thank everybody who has been involved in that over many difficult weeks and months now let me move to highway eight i want to give an update on highway eight specifically between merit and spence's bridge which of course was largely destroyed 23 separate sites are being addressed on this stretch of highway eight temporary access has either been completed or is under construction now at 10 sites with construction set to begin at 13 more sites in the near future access through the five sites between merit and the west side of shack and indian reserve is now open for local residents work is progressing well at spence's bridge the end of the spence's bridge end of highway eight with local access established over cernu bridge repairs are ongoing at rattlesnake and three mile bridges right now bc hydro has restored power to residents between merit and shacken on the north side with work continuing to fully restore power throughout the area all of this means that we expect to have temporary repairs on highway eight to a point where people can regain access to their homes this spring it's important when we're talking about highway eight to note how important indigenous and local leaders are in helping guide these important repairs and we're in regular contact with local residents the three indigenous joint venture contractors are working with the maintenance contractor to complete this work on highway eight and first nations cultural and archaeological monitors are working at all locations under construction we would like to thank the local residents for their advice for their patience for their cooperation and first nations communities and leadership for their assistance with this ongoing work will continue to communicate directly with people in the area with indigenous governments and local governments as this timeline firms up i want to speak briefly because i promised an update before christmas and holiday break about the costs of emergency repairs that the province has incurred the work to reopen all of the damaged highways has truly been impressive and we owe a huge debt of gratitude to the crews and staff who put in the long hours and all kinds of conditions to make that happen we don't yet have final costs of the emergency repairs to our highway network as one can understand and we won't have final confirmed numbers for another couple of months but i can say that the early estimates are in the range of 170 to 220 million dollars this work covers work on both the south coast and in the interior all of the areas impacted by the series of extreme weather events of that figure approximately 45 to 55 million dollars are expenses that were incurred to reopen the coca-cola the estimates include all the work that were needed to reopen highways such as repairing bridges and roadways that were washed out removing debris carrying out flood mitigation work as well as having enhanced winter maintenance and traffic control systems in place and personnel most of the emergency repairs are being led by a road and bridge maintenance contractors many of whom then subcontract where necessary to experience indigenous local and road builder contractors when we do have final costs for all of the emergency work we will of course update and share that with the public i want to move briefly rebuilds for our damaged infrastructure the initial planning to permanently rebuild highways one and eight and the coca-cola is well underway in late november about 300 representatives from various construction and design firms attended a virtual introductory project meeting we've since completed the assessments of those firms and have identified those that have been included on the pre-qualified list for construction work and we will be starting the reconstruction process as soon as conditions allow this spring and we're excited about the innovation about the ideas the expertise that these firms can bring we know and we have seen demonstrated in real time in recent months that british columbia has among the most talented workers and the best road construction firms that you can find anywhere in the world and they will be indispensable for us to rebuild permanently our infrastructure as we build it back better to where it was before the storms the designs will incorporate construction techniques and practices and design specifications to withstand a climate change and the impacts of extreme weather events like we've experienced in our province in closing i again want to extend my sincere thanks and appreciation to all those who've gotten us to the point that to this point the companies involved the trade unions local first nations the engineers and suppliers your work has been noted and appreciated by british columbians in every part of the region i can't thank you enough on behalf of my ministry on behalf of premier hogan and the government i also want to take a moment to acknowledge my staff in the ministry of transportation and infrastructure they have been working around the clock as well for many many weeks some of them didn't get much of a holiday break at all um they've gone above and beyond and they've shown that the public service here is dedicated to serving our citizens in the best way possible and they've been out on the highways working with contractors meeting with indigenous communities and local residents and leading and coordinating the response and i can't thank these talented hardworking professionals enough for the work they do and i'm incredibly proud of what we've achieved thus far uh based on their hard work and understanding that we have a lot of work left to do and we will be able to keep goods uh and services moving in this province we're repairing our supply chains making them strong and resilient for the future we will be working with communities to make that uh to accomplish that in the best way possible and we acknowledge that that work continues to get us back to where we need before the storm conditions and build back better to where we've ever been as a province and with that thank you for tuning in for this briefing thank you very much a reminder to reporters on the line please press star one to enter the queue you will be limited to one question and one follow-up our first question today comes from justine hunter globin mail hi thanks uh minister you said that 170 to 220 million dollars is for emergency repairs can you give me a sense of how much more work there needs to be done in terms of reconstruction yeah so i i mentioned uh thank you for the question justine i mentioned that those are the emergency repairs to restore temporary access and functionality um to the highest degree possible on our highways um we'll have to update those figures uh over the next couple of months there are obviously some outstanding invoices and work progressing between now and the end of the fiscal year when it comes to the uh permanent uh rebuild of some of the damaged areas the the firms that we're working with as a ministry right now are coming up with design features and we haven't got that entirely costed yet we will share uh preliminary project budgets for highway one highway eight through the Fraser Canyon and the coca-cala when we have those those estimates completed justine do you have a follow-up i do thanks um can you give me a sense of the technical challenges i know uh whether notwithstanding just like how does this work compare to say the sea to sky or kicking horse canyon upgrades well you've got uh companies that need to um work with uh traffic control and uh make sure that workplaces are safe to have the highways open and repaired at the same time that's the goal uh to be able to use our highways as we build back better and repair them um so there's there's there's that's always a major challenge in any construction project is is how you manage that access um and functionality while you repair so uh it's it's significant um obviously some areas we're going to build back differently than what was there before uh in order to account for extreme weather events so that means that things will be engineered significantly differently than than they were previously so we'll have those details to share as we identify solutions that we think meet the new engineering standards that we've helped develop with the industry and with some of the think tanks that are working on infrastructure resiliency in this province in this country and around the world next question Richard Zussman global news minister are you surprised by how quickly you were able to reopen this for regular traffic I think when you were regularly briefing in November and December there were some estimates that this may not be the case until the spring or summer so are you surprised that this is happening so quickly I am very pleasantly surprised at the progress that we made um I think we had a an opportunity for the entire province to express their gratitude and marvel at the work that was done on the coca-cola to have it reopened to commercial traffic on the 20th of December we had 300 incredible women and men working on that job around the clock to be able to do that I think we mobilized 140 pieces of equipment um we had firms that were working with us let's put it this way I think one of the things that really made the difference was the level of motivation was through the roof people wanted to be a part of that they wanted to show that BC could rally just as we helped farmers and others that were affected by flooding and Abbotsford just as we donated to the Red Cross to help people out in Merritt and Princeton it was really the same ethos of British Columbians and Canadians in fact uh standing together to show what we could do but uh yes the uh the technical progress and the skill and expertise that was displayed thus far in all the projects I've updated today and before we had the holiday season upon us there's nothing short of incredible Richard do you have a follow-up to what justine was asking about are there any estimates in terms of the additional costs for building back like I think people may be surprised to see that the number you present today is a bit lower than I think people are expecting for costs and so should we expect the rebuild to sneak into the billions of dollars in terms of costs yeah it it really wouldn't be productive for me to throw out a hypothetical number right now because there is a lot of work that needs to be done on quantifying what the rebuild looks like um what we have done though back in November as I mentioned uh as we worked with 300 firms and individuals who expressed interest in working on on these projects uh to sort of be able to pre-qualify them to get working as soon as possible once we get a good runway of a better weather as we get closer to the spring um will of course uh have uh you know a better idea of what the costs look like um but as I've said before uh for us uh making this a priority and putting the resources that we need to into these emergency unanticipated repairs is is what we're we're facing as a government and what we've committed to do next question elicitivo ctv hi minister uh thanks for taking my question um so firstly when uh went while highway five had been closed and highway three was really the only access point for a number of uh vehicles to get to the interior we did see a lot of a lot of instances of crashes and avalanches and bad driving I mean do you do you want to speak to that uh and do you have any message to drivers taken to coca-cola as well I do and um certainly when the number three was the only route available to the interior other than the one that we were able to negotiate um with our federal counterparts and the relevant us agencies to get through northern washington uh for a period of time we sat down specifically on the number three with representatives of the trucking industry to identify how we can make this safer information was key a lot of drivers had not been on the number three very very regularly or at all and needed to learn what the conditions were like it's an older highway built to uh specifications that are from a previous era you know so and it's difficult terrain um so I think with the enforcement the rcmp presence we did hand out a number of tickets for people who for whatever reasons weren't obeying the posted speed limits so I think enforcement played a role in in getting a stronger safety compliance working with our road maintenance contractors as well to hit the weather with de-icing and abrasives and keep it safe that was our goal and we certainly did everything we could to educate motorists that wanted to use it over the holiday season and when we reopened it uh to them so uh the number three performed well it was regularly inspected because we were worried about the damage it sustained so making sure that um it was um functional at all times was was part of that endeavor and that's what we're doing now on the number five as well alissa do you have a follow-up yeah and I guess just uh leading on from that um because there were you mentioned there will be sections of the coca-cola that will have reduced speed limits and and certain parts will take longer will there be is there a plan of enforcement on the number five yes you'll see similar stepped up enforcement that you've seen on the number three so we're working with rcmp and our own ministry cvse enforcement teams it means that when when chaining up is required chaining up must occur when speed variables are adjusted those need to be adhered to I mentioned earlier you know absolute prohibition and restriction on any passing in the areas that have reduced lane capacity so those are all things that we're educating drivers about that drive bc alerts uh drivers who are planning trips using the coca-cola to be aware of and of course it's what we're working with the bc trucking association and others to constantly remind drivers of commercial vehicles to adhere to next question comes from Mira Bain cbc sir minister how do you respond to truckers who are worried about their lives because of the road conditions on bc highways you know they're complaining about ice snow there was a protest on the weekend and another one is planned for the upcoming weekend um can you just respond to you know what do you say to those truck drivers who are trying to cross these highways you say the conditions aren't aren't good right now well our number one priority as a ministry uh is to make sure that all truckers are safe all workers in British Columbia deserve to work safely and get home to their families each and every night um and that's what we're working on uh on the coca-cola that's a key part of the um road maintenance agreements that we amended and significantly changed in 2019 so there are significantly higher levels of resources to make sure that winter conditions are more regularly plowed and attended to in terms of de-icing that more equipment is available on standby that weather forecasting plays a greater role in road maintenance strategies and deployment having said that truckers are invaluable uh eyes on the road for us um you know the issue that I heard uh a representative of the west coast truckers association talked about in terms of potholes uh we want to get crews repairing that damage because it's it's kind of like aftershock damage of the storm events you've got wet conditions under the road bed that then freezes and cracks and we know that uh those repairs are really important and uh we have companies and firms and supplies procured to be able to do that as quickly as possible that's that's the job that we're doing and um we've certainly been working with road maintenance companies uh because uh the winter that we're experiencing right now is is significant and severe uh you know uh and uh and therefore working closely with the industry is a key strategy around uh maintaining ongoing safety of our roads including the coca-cola Mira do you have a follow-up uh yeah and we're wondering about just uh federal money that's going towards these repairs and uh just the temporary repairs as well as the permanent repairs um do you have sort of a framework worked out with the minister of transportation uh the federal uh minister of transport so I've been in regular discussions with both the minister of transportation and the minister of infrastructure federally and um some of my counterparts in in our bc cabinet are working uh for example minister farnworth is working with minister Blair on public safety and emergency recovery the minister of agriculture has been active with her counterpart uh in Ottawa so there are many facets to what recovery looks like infrastructure damage in communities like merit and princeton where it involves um wastewater treatment and drinking water uh housing so um our discussions and the table we've created with our federal counterparts are really covering every aspect of what the recovery looks like specifically to my ministry the discussions I've had with both the minister of infrastructure and transportation federally around what build back better looks like and what kind of flexibility we would like to see with the money they've um allocated on a preliminary basis for recovery around uh new standards building back better climate resilience have been very productive and the the level of engagement uh couldn't be any higher than than than what we've achieved thus far we have time for one more question we'll go to Tyler Olson Fraser Valley Current oh yeah thank you um there's been concerns as I think another reporter raised um about the maintenance of highways during the recent snow events I think the ministry recently told casting that that doesn't track the number of complaints about road clearing if you don't track user feedback how do you assess if those users are being served appropriately by the contractors well we do uh and we have a very strict audit and compliance regime and um contractors are motivated financially to meet and exceed them there's um bonus payments that are not received based on complaints that are investigated so there is an investigation in an audit and compliance regime that is part of how the ministry administers road maintenance contracts in every part of the province and the other thing too is that I mentioned some changes we made as a province as a new government in fact in 2019 around much higher standards of road maintenance and mobilization to protect uh uh safe road conditions in the winter um that costs a lot more money in the tens and tens of millions of dollars that added to the contracts that required them to staff up and acquire more equipment but that has paid off significantly so we do of course track things like accident statistics and we have seen improvements related to the enhanced road maintenance contracts that our government attended and that we're successfully competed for that is benefiting everybody in the province. Tyler do you have a follow-up? Yeah thanks um so rebuilding the highways is obviously a huge job but are there any new plans for work on the highway areas that maybe weren't damaged last year but maybe particularly or newly vulnerable in the future given the last year and some of the weather we've seen and the fires we've seen? Yeah absolutely I think we're assessing vulnerability in every part of the province we had some atmospheric river activity some of which wasn't as severe as anticipated but um you know affecting the largely unimpacted northern region and then of course we had some weather events um in the northwest of the province so we're looking at those at that infrastructure we have made some good steps in recent years in terms of the investments we're making for climate adaptation like proactive investments to prevent significant washouts and damage to infrastructure um we're going to continue to do that uh it's very helpful now to be working side by side with the federal government as well and um there is some damage that was sustained in the storm events that we haven't talked a lot about in today's briefing um because it was repaired so quickly and it's been so highly functional but Highway 1 the Malahat here on Vancouver Island sustained significant damage in November I drove it on Saturday and was very impressed with how functional it is how how quickly those repairs happen but of course there'll be work in upcoming construction seasons to see what additional steps we might take to protect our drainage systems to protect our highway networks. Thank you very much that concludes today's event.