A pair of tragedies on a flooded Bamfield road during a recent heavy rainfall is bringing up critical questions about how the public should be alerted on the route, says Huu-ay-aht’s elected chief.
The West Coast’s first major storm of the season became fatal over the weekend when the Sarita River overtook sections of the Bamfield Road, claiming the lives of two Bamfield residents.
The deceased have been identified as Ken Duncan and Bob Baden, victims of a rapidly rising Sarita River that had completely submerged the road in feet of water by the early afternoon on Saturday, Oct. 19. Duncan worked as a property manager for the Huu-ay-aht Group of Businesses, while Baden owned and ran a lumber store in Bamfield for many years.
Heavy rains coupled with high tides are wreaking havoc on industrial roads leading to Bamfield and Nitinaht.
Local motorists from Anacla, Bamfield and Nitinaht shared photos of road conditions on the way to the remote communities.
Kristen Young of Huu-ay-aht shared a photo of a slide that occurred at the 44 kilometre marker outside of Bamfield on the morning of Wednesday, Oct. 18. She reported that the debris had been mostly cleared by 9:30 that morning and drivers could get through.
After three years of work, decades of lobbying and multiple traffic fatalities the Bamfield road has been upgraded, offering a newly surfaced, safer passage to the Barkley Sound community.
As cool fall temperatures set in, residents of Anacla and Bamfield are seeing their notoriously dusty, bumpy, and dangerous access road improve as crews near the end of the final segment of chip sealing just outside of Port Alberni.
Bamfield Main is a 76-kilometre industrial road, mostly located on the traditional territory of the Huu-ay-aht First Nations, that acts as a link between the communities of Anacla, Bamfield, and Port Alberni.
After decades of lobbying for a safer road to Bamfield and the Huu-ay-aht village of Anacla, chip sealing begins on the route this weekend.
Announced by the Huu-ay-aht First Nations today, crews will begin laying the seal coat Saturday, starting halfway down the 77-kilometre passage to progress towards Bamfield. After sealing kilometre 36 to 76.6, work is expected to begin back at the midway point, progressing the seal coat towards Port Alberni from kilometre 36 to 0. The seal coat is set to be completed by the early fall.
Gravel is being laid on the last stretch of road at the 15.5 to 24-kilometre mark of the Bamfield Main and is expected to be complete by the end of April. According to Uyaqḥmis, the Huu-ay-aht First Nation’s newsletter, all of the ditching and culvert work is complete and the project is on schedule.
Negotiations are underway for a contractor to complete the 76.6 kilmetres of seal coat, which is expected to be complete by August.
Work continues on the Bamfield Main Surfacing Project as the Huu-ay-aht community looks forward to safer travel conditions when the road is paved later next year. The road has been undergoing construction since 2020 with the goal of making the road to the remote communities of Bamfield and Anacla safer.
One of the foreseeable changes linked to the Bamfield Main Surfacing Project’s completion is a change in the local economy, said Robert Dennis, chief councillor of the Huu-ay-aht First Nations.