Urgent sinkhole repair closes Coquihalla Highway northbound from Hope to Merritt

CBC

06-06-2025

A major highway in the British Columbia Interior has been partially closed due to "urgent sinkhole repairs."
The provincial Transportation Ministry's DriveBC information system says the Coquihalla Highway has been closed northbound between Hope and Merritt.
DriveBC says the closure is due to what it's calling a "washout" that requires urgent sinkhole repairs. It previously said the earliest that traffic might resume was around noon on Friday, but in an update on X, it says the highway will remain closed until further notice.
"We were hoping to allow traffic through early this afternoon, but due to unforeseen geotechnical circumstances, we are pushing our next update time to 5 p.m. this evening," DriveBC said.
It also clarified that 5 p.m. is not the estimated time of reopening.
Motorists looking to travel northbound on the Coquihalla are being asked to divert to either Highway 1 or Highway 3.
The closure was first reported by DriveBC at around 8:30 p.m. Thursday at a location between the Portia and Zopkios brake check exits, about three kilometres south of the Great Bear Snowshed.