VICTORIA -- The only highway in and out of Vancouver Island’s Pacific Rim communities will be temporarily shut down as rock blasting gets underway next week.
Highway 4 at Kennedy Hill will be closed in both directions from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. on Tuesday, March 23.
The closure will restrict all road access to the communities of Tofino and Ucluelet during daylight hours.
The Transportation Ministry describes the work next week as “one of the most complex blasts on the project,” which has been ongoing since the project was announced in 2017.
Last January, blasting at the Kennedy Hill site triggered a rockslide that cut off access to Tofino and Ucluelet for a weekend.
Intermitted highway closures have been continuous ever since.
Once the work is completed next week, the area will return to regular four-hour road closures each weekday between 11 a.m. and 3 p.m.
The full schedule of intermittent highway closures for the area is available here.
