The bridge at Bamfield 45 remains washed out, two weeks after a massive rain storm hit the west coast.
A detour around it has been set up, but adds an additional hour to the drive to or from Bamfield.
According to Bob Beckett, the regional district director for Bamfield, that section of the road is owned and maintained by Western Forest Products, and the repair and replacement of the bridge has been delayed by the strike.
He said the people of Bamfield are angry that they’ve been caught in the crossfire of the labour dispute.
“I left Bamfield on Wednesday morning to head to Port Alberni for meetings at the board office, and I passed a number of vehicles with senior citizens in them, that I can only assume were heading to Port Alberni and Nanaimo for medical reasons, and to add an additional hour or more to that drive is unacceptable in this day and age,” he said. “This isn’t just an industrial road, it’s a lifeline to our two communities. It’s unacceptable.”
In an e-mail to Becket, WFP’s Manager of Operations Jim Muress, said bridge work will start on Monday, and take about 10 days to complete.
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