Crews remove debris from slide area on 16 east – photo courtesy BC Ministry of Transportation

Tete Jaune Cache, B.C.- Highway 16 east at Tete Jaune Cache has been re-opened.

The Highway had been closed since  Saturday  afternoon because of a mud slide about 1 km west of the junction with  Highway 5. 

While crews had opened up the highway  to single lane alternating traffic for a couple of hours on Saturday,  they  had to shut it down again  Saturday night because the mud kept on sliding on to the roadway and water was flowing over the highway as well.

 Crews  started working on the slide again Sunday morning,  and  officially  reopened the stretch of highway around 11:00 this morning. 

 Geotechnical engineers and ministry operations staff have assessed the hillside and the area is now stable.  Crews continue to  work to clear mud, trees and other debris from the site.

Work will continue over the next couple of weeks  and may  require traffic  to be reduced to single lane alternating movement  and minor delays.

This stretch of highway has had slide problems before.

• In  July of 2008,  the  highway was closed from the junction  with  highway 5 all the way to the BC/Alberta border because  of  mud and debris slides brought on by  heavy rain.
• In June of 2012, Highway 16 was closed 8 kilometres west of the highway 5 junction because of a slide.
• A  mudslide in June of 2013,  again, around 8kms  west of the  highway 5 junction closed highway 16.