B.C.’s Ministry of Transportation and Infrastructure is moving forward on permanent repairs to the Coquihalla Highway between Hope and Merritt.

In a news release Thursday (March 24) morning, the ministry says a contract for Highway 5’s repairs will be awarded in late April or early May 2022, and construction is expected to begin in summer and be completed by the end of the year. The ministry will invite select contractors take part in a selection process to design and construct permanent repairs at:

• Bottletop Bridges, 50 kilometres south of Merritt
• Juliet Bridges, three kilometres south of Bottletop
• Jessica Bridges, 48 kilometres south of Juliet

The province says the repairs will return the Coquihalla Highway in the affected areas to full four-lane capacity. It adds the sites will be repaired to withstand future extreme weather events after November’s atmospheric river event closed the stretch of Highway 5 to regular traffic for two months.

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