No significant damage after Massey Tunnel hit by overheight truck
Two agencies have been brought in to investigate the latest commercial vehicle collision in BC, this time involving the George Massey Tunnel.
Wednesday night, a semi-truck hit the ceiling of the tunnel between Delta and Richmond. According to a witness report to the Richmond RCMP, the truck initially stopped inside the tunnel but then continued driving through. The truck was then alleged to have pulled over once outside of the tunnel, where the driver spoke to an employee from a road maintenance contractor.
The incident led to some minor delays that had been resolved by Thursday morning’s commute.
There were no reports of any injuries.
But, despite the quick reopening, BC’s transportation minister is not holding back his condemnation that these kinds of incidents are a serious problem for the province’s transportation corridors.
“It’s frustrating to see another incident like this involving a commercial vehicle. There is no excuse for this. It has never been easier to follow a route to guide the load to travel safely through our highway system and avoid the potential for impact with infrastructure,” Rob Fleming told Daily Hive Thursday in a statement.
“The Ministry’s Commercial Vehicle Safety and Enforcement branch is working to determine the company and driver involved and will conduct a thorough investigation. RCMP have also been notified. At this point, it appears no significant damage occurred,” he added.
Highway 99 and Highway 17A have been undergoing intermittent closures since Monday as a result of repairs needed on that overpass which was struck in the summer.
Crews were busy last night on the first night of #BCHwy17A repairs over #BCHwy99 in #DeltaBC.
Concrete barrier added on overpass for safety.
Nightly closures & scheduled weekend closures required for 8 weeks.
More info: https://t.co/00eLVm7V5m pic.twitter.com/TZ8oFtVixl
— Lower Mainland Dist. (@TranBC_LMD) January 11, 2024
To find out more about the closures this month, click here.