Fort Nelson mayor hopes repairs come quickly to Sikanni Chief River bridge

FORT NELSON, B.C. — The mayor of Fort Nelson, Gary Foster, hopes the Sikanni Chief River bridge can be repaired or a temporary solution can be found soon.

“Although the Northern Rockies is slightly inconvenienced, that will eventually pass, but that truck driver’s family has lost a loved one, and that’s probably the most important part about this,” Foster said.

After a tanker truck crashed into the Sikanni Chief River bridge causing an explosion, a vital component of the Alaska Highway was shut down before only opening to light traffic.

A 20-hour detour is in store for trucks heavier than the allowed 15,500 kilograms travelling to Fort Nelson.

Foster says the detour takes drivers up into the Yukon and back down from the north.

Fort Nelson isn’t the only community affected by the damaged bridge, as Fort Liard and Whitehorse are also connected to the province via the Alaska Highway.

“This is a real problem for everyone,” Foster said.

On August 27th, a consultant engineer completed an initial assessment, and further assessments were conducted over the course of this week.

Foster says he was told “whatever action is necessary” is being taken to have the bridge fully open as soon as possible.

One suggestion Foster had was putting some shoring underneath the bridge for support until the bridge can be fixed appropriately.

Shoring is a temporary support used during construction or repairs of existing structures.

IGA and Save-On-Foods have been diverting their trucks up into the Yukon to come back down to keep their shelves stocked.

He says he also wrote to Bob Zimmer, asking him to intervene to “make sure that Canada Post comes up with a method so they can get mail delivered to the Northern Rockies.”

Foster says they may have the option of flying up there, but IGA and Save-On-Foods don’t have that option.

One “silver lining,” he says, is that they are going into the fall, which is harvest time for the farmers in the area.

He says they have been supporting some of the produce, but “produce is only a small part of a food store.”

According to Fort Nelson IGA’s Facebook page, they received their truck in the middle of the night and spent all morning stocking the shelves.

Foster would like the government to “step up” and get the bridge functional as soon as possible but understands they can only go so fast.

“We need to make sure that that road is safe, first of all. And so the engineers have to do their work, and there’s a process to go through here, and it has to be followed. And sometimes it’s not as fast as we would like, but we need to make sure that that bridge is safe. We don’t want to have another accident on that bridge.”

The Sikanni Chief River bridge was closed from August 25th to August 28th before it was opened to light traffic.

The latest update from Thursday morning remains the same, as light traffic is allowed, and commercial traffic under 15,500 kilograms can bring weight slips to verify and must call 250-774-6956 before travelling.