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There is currently no way to drive between Vancouver and the rest of Canada

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Re: There is currently no way to drive between Vancouver and the rest of Canada

#381

Post by pomian »

jonwest wrote: post #370
pomian wrote: post #325

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you live in Vancouver and are staying there it is not an issue. But there is an amazing huge scale issue of access to the interior of British Columbia. 2 out of 3 highways from Alberta are closed. That means you have to drive either an ~ extra 500 miles north, or south, to travel 50-100 miles west or east. There is no way to travel across a whole region of a huge country. Similar to closing all east west highways…

I live in Vancouver. It absolutely is an issue. It’s a huge issue. We are the primary port for western Canada. All shipments that would have been routed via road and rail travel through Vancouver now need to be rerouted either via air or through the USA. Gas shipments are going to be complicated. Food shipments are going to be complicated. These highways that are closed due to collapse are built into the side of moun…

I didnt mean to belittle your issues. I was trying to respond to op, that this affects the whole province, and is actually serious. I think it will become moreso as we move along. As you say, there is some serious engineering ahead. We were wondering how long to fix rail road? If a hundred years ago, it seems as if we could act faster. During WW II also. We shall see fast 'they' fix this. and for that matter, the whole country. If rail down, no Chinese imports, no metallurgical coal or grain exports.

Re: There is currently no way to drive between Vancouver and the rest of Canada

#382

Post by selimthegrim »

pomian wrote: post #325
lhorie wrote: post #100

For just a bit of context/anecdata, I'm talking to my brother who lives in Vancouver and he wasn't even aware this was a problem. The road closure[0] on hwy 1 near Abbotsford/Chilliwack is a good one hour drive away from Vancouver core[1]. So while it sounds noteworthy for an entire city be technically flooded in, unless you were driving to the boonies, you're probably not actually impacted in any meaningful way. He…

If you live in Vancouver and are staying there it is not an issue. But there is an amazing huge scale issue of access to the interior of British Columbia. 2 out of 3 highways from Alberta are closed. That means you have to drive either an ~ extra 500 miles north, or south, to travel 50-100 miles west or east. There is no way to travel across a whole region of a huge country. Similar to closing all east west highways…

Which highway to Alberta is open?

Re: There is currently no way to drive between Vancouver and the rest of Canada

#383

Post by macromagnon »

megablast wrote: post #374
amatecha wrote: post #133

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I live in Vancouver - my coworkers and family were very aware of this, watching footage online and exclaiming at the brutal nature of the weather and landslides we experienced yesterday. Never seen this many roads closed in BC in my nearly 4 decades living here.

Keep driving your car, pretending you’re not destroying the planet.

Transportation accounts for 14% of total greenhouse gas emissions [1] and that includes rail/air/marine travel so it doesn't seem to be as simple as getting people out of their cars.

[1] https://www.epa.gov/ghgemissions/global-greenhouse-gas-emiss...

Re: There is currently no way to drive between Vancouver and the rest of Canada

#384

Post by swader999 »

TMWNN wrote: post #347
Tiktaalik wrote: post #128

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Gas comes through pipeline from refineries in Washington, so that should be largely unaffected. Lots of produce does come from the Fraser Valley which is impacted, but also North/South links to the USA (ie. we get heaps of produce from California). I assume there's a fair amount of food that is delivered from the port, as a lot of food packaging warehouses are near the port. Most trade in Canada is North/South aligne…

>Most trade in Canada is North/South aligned. Tbh the east/west orientation of the country doesn't make a lotta sense lol. As Paul Krugman wrote, Canada is closer to the US than to itself. ( https://krugman.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/01/13/eh/ >)

Yes and the east west rail link was a big reason why B.C. joined and stayed in Canada.

Re: There is currently no way to drive between Vancouver and the rest of Canada

#385

Post by swader999 »

ospzfmbbzr wrote: post #344
cf100clunk wrote: post #136

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The Trans Canada Highway from Kamloops to Hope was largely superceded as a trucking route by the more capacious and direct Coquihalla Highway after 1986. Now the Coquihalla is in dire condition.

The Coquihalla is one of the more dangerous highways you will ever drive, particularly in winter, mainly due to altitude and bad weather. Not fun in a white out.

Just imagine this much moisture falling there as snow.

Re: There is currently no way to drive between Vancouver and the rest of Canada

#386

Post by schoen »

lepton wrote: post #202
boborhythm wrote: post #179

Interestingly, there is a railroad line that goes north from Vancouver, through Whistler and Pemberton, but takes a different route than Highway 99 to get to Lillooet[1]. The highway (aka The Duffey, as it passes Duffey Lake) gains and then loses something like 1000m of elevation, whereas the railroad line is much flatter and travels along Gates Lake, Anderson Lake, and Seton Lake. There are dirt/gravel roads there t…

"tortuous" is the word you're wanting there. :)

Not to be confused with "tortious" or "torturous" (even though all three etymologically refer to twisting!).

Re: There is currently no way to drive between Vancouver and the rest of Canada

#387

Post by Phithagoras »

selimthegrim wrote: post #382
pomian wrote: post #325

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you live in Vancouver and are staying there it is not an issue. But there is an amazing huge scale issue of access to the interior of British Columbia. 2 out of 3 highways from Alberta are closed. That means you have to drive either an ~ extra 500 miles north, or south, to travel 50-100 miles west or east. There is no way to travel across a whole region of a huge country. Similar to closing all east west highways…

Which highway to Alberta is open?

Highway 16 and the 43 (2 on the BC side) are still open. They're probably referring to the 16 because the 43 is pretty out of the way. The 1 and 3 is still open on the AB side too, though avalanches were/are causing trouble in Rogers Pass in central BC.

any drive conditions in BC can be checked at https://drivebc.ca/ in AB https://511.alberta.ca/#:MyRoutes

Anyone who was seriously motivated to get to the rest of Canada could drive through the US or take a ferry to Vancouver island, drive to Port Hardy, take a ferry to Bella Coola or Prince Rupert and drive to the rest of the country from there. It would take forever and the roads from Bella Coola and Prince Rupert are notorious. Vancouverites say the Coquihalla is the gnarliest road in Canada, and it just shows that they've never seen the rest of their country. The 2 lane, gravel, Heckman Pass on highway 20 is nothing like the paved, seperated 4-6 lanes of the Coq.

Re: There is currently no way to drive between Vancouver and the rest of Canada

#388

Post by swader999 »

cf100clunk wrote: post #191
arcticbull wrote: post #164

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Dire in what way? Vancouver still has the YVR airport, a seaport, ferries, a downtown float plane airport and both road and rail access to the US. There will be some impact to prices, I imagine, while the road and rail links to the rest of Canada are rebuilt.

Dire for Merritt (evacuated), Princeton (under water), Hope (all highways closed or curtailed), Abbotsford (under water), Chilliwack (under water), Fernie (no highway access) and a host of other places on the mainland and on the Island that are vital transport, agricultural, forestry, tourism, and mining centres. You mentioned prices, so scale it up to international economics level.

Fernie is accessible both from the south and the east.

Re: There is currently no way to drive between Vancouver and the rest of Canada

#389

Post by Kluny »

swader999 wrote: post #379
Kluny wrote: post #376

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's one section of like ten equally important road links that are in equally bad shape. That one could be fixed fast, sure, if it was the ONLY problem we were dealing with right now.

I still think it's two weeks max before those routes are passable with temporary measures even with unions.

I dunno, hope you know more about road engineering than I do. This is a section of the Coquihalla.

https://www.instagram.com/p/CWWz8QCP4Mm/?utm_medium=copy_lin...

Re: There is currently no way to drive between Vancouver and the rest of Canada

#390

Post by [deleted] »

pomian wrote: post #381
jonwest wrote: post #370

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I live in Vancouver. It absolutely is an issue. It’s a huge issue. We are the primary port for western Canada. All shipments that would have been routed via road and rail travel through Vancouver now need to be rerouted either via air or through the USA. Gas shipments are going to be complicated. Food shipments are going to be complicated. These highways that are closed due to collapse are built into the side of moun…

I didnt mean to belittle your issues. I was trying to respond to op, that this affects the whole province , and is actually serious. I think it will become moreso as we move along. As you say, there is some serious engineering ahead. We were wondering how long to fix rail road? If a hundred years ago, it seems as if we could act faster. During WW II also. We shall see fast 'they' fix this. and for that matter, the wh…

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