Pouce Coupe Bridge on Highway 49 to open Sunday night

UPDATE – The Bridge opened to single-lane traffic early Monday morning.

DAWSON CREEK, B.C. – The Pouce Coupe Bridge on Highway 49 will be open to single-lane alternating traffic starting late Sunday night.

Early Saturday morning a tanker truck caught fire on the Pouce Coupe Bridge. According to the Ministry of Environment, the truck was hauling oil and was involved in a collision while crossing the bridge. The truck was completely destroyed, but engineers believe the bridge is still in good enough shape to open it to single-lane traffic.

#BCHwy49 update. Our engineering team have done a full assessment of the structure. We will be open to single lane traffic late tonight ⁦@ArgoSouthPeace⁩ is putting on a few finishing touches and installing barriers prior to open pic.twitter.com/q7pZszHMsw

— MoT Peace (@TranBC_Peace) November 18, 2019

The bridge should be open late Sunday night. For updates on area roads, including when the bridge will open, visit www.drivebc.ca.

Dawson Creek Fire Department, the RCMP and an Environmental Emergency Response Officer (EERO) attended the scene. The driver was taken to the hospital.

#BChwy49 engineers in action inspecting the structure over the Pouce River . Keep your eyes on https://t.co/gKywKfqOmM for updates as we are hopeful to get to single lane alternating this evening pic.twitter.com/ArreA3ujl2

— MoT Peace (@TranBC_Peace) November 17, 2019

The tanker truck was removed from the Pouce Coupe bridge Saturday afternoon under a directive from Transport Canada. An estimated 40,000 litres of crude oil was lost. However, the majority of the product was likely consumed during the truck fire.

An absorbent boom was placed across the Pouce Coupe River to catch product that is migrating downstream from rip-wrap underneath the bridge. The environmental contractor, hired by the trucking company, took background, source and downstream water samples and installed wildlife deterrents to keep wildfire away from the incident site.