Winter driving conditions along the Coquihalla northbound heading from Merritt to Kamloops on Tuesday evening before the highway was completely shut down Tuesday evening/via Catherine Belliveau Facebook
After being shut down for over half-a-day, the Coquihalla Highway is once again open to traffic.
The stretch was closed from Hope to north of Merritt as of around 9pm last night in both directions.
It’s connected to some sort of motor vehicle incident which took place shortly after 8pm the northbound lanes, about 20 kilometers south of Merritt in the Kingsvale stretch of the Highway.
Details of exactly what happened have not been revealed yet.
Map highlighting area of the Coquihalla closed overnight on Tuesday/via DriveBC
However, the severity of whatever did take place was enough to prompt authorities to close the Coquihalla in both directions at around 9pm, with the full shutdown in both directions lasting over 12 hours.
During the shutdown, drivers trying to head north into the Interior were advised to take either Highway 1 through the Fraser Canyon, or take Highway 3 route.
Those who decided to brave the southbound trek from Kamloops would have been stopped about 6 kilometers north of Merritt.
The Fraser Canyon, much like the Hope to Merritt section of the Coquihalla, was hit by upward of 30cm of snow from Tuesday afternoon to Wednesday morning, creating treacherous driving conditions.
