Highway 20, BC - Closed

There is a lot of irrigation in the area for hay crops, that is beef cattle country. If a pipe had been leaking for some time the water may have been backed up then burst through a natural dam. We have had quite a time with road washouts here in B.C.

Thanks for the pictures, must have been one hell of a pipe to deliver that much water to do that much damage. we were just down 97, the Frasier is very high, and fast from all the runoff.

Tom/Barb wrote:
Google maps doesn't show any farm land at the 12 mile point on #20 west of Williams Lake. mostly forest and one ravine after another.
There is 1 big circle farm much farther west. operating off its own wellhead.

The washout is about 25 kms (15 miles from the Highway 97 junction.) As you cross the Sheep Creek bridge at the Fraser River, the road rises then curves to the right. This image I took in 2013, is from the east side of the bridge looking west. The sliver of highway in the top left is where the washout occurred.



And yes, there is farmland up and to the right of the highway there. Here is a good image of the area.(Not my image.)


I'll be up there in a couple of weeks and the highway should be all repaired by then.

Google maps doesn't show any farm land at the 12 mile point on #20 west of Williams Lake. mostly forest and one ravine after another.
There is 1 big circle farm much farther west. operating off its own wellhead.
awesome washout tho.

165 yards of road bed gone.

Ill bet the guy who got washed away had to have clean draws when they got him out.

Damage

certainly doesn't look like a irrigation pipe could do that ..

Tom/Barb wrote:
Central BC has had a very wet spring and a fast thaw and a lot of snow coming out fast. The campground we stayed in at Cache Creek was nearly washed away 3 weeks prior to us arriving.

This washout was not caused by weather. Some reports this morning mentioned that a irrigation pipe burst and eroded the ground underneath the highway.

Central BC has had a very wet spring and a fast thaw and a lot of snow coming out fast. The campground we stayed in at Cache Creek was nearly washed away 3 weeks prior to us arriving.