Date Posted : August 22, 2025
in : News and Events
Move over, traffic — our crew has taken over the Cassiar Tunnels, and for one glorious night, it's ours. We're deep in Phase 5 of the Highway 1 paving project for the Ministry of Transportation and Infrastructure of BC, and this week we rolled right up to the westbound entrance of the iconic tunnels.
Translation: we've officially hit the halfway mark! That's 26 lane kilometers freshly paved and 16,690 tonnes of asphalt laid — all cooked up in our own eco-friendly, greenest-in-the-nation asphalt plant.
Normally, over 150,000 vehicles barrel through these tunnels every single day, which makes them one of the province's busiest highway choke points. That's why their openings and closures during construction are timed with military precision. As VP of Operations Dennis Labelle puts it:
"If you miss the reopening time, the penalties are… let's just say they'd pay for a nice vacation. For someone else."
No wonder we do all the magic at night, when the traffic disappears and the tunnels transform into something surreal — 730 meters of echoing emptiness, lit like a movie set, with our pavers' balloon lights stretching into the distance. From inside, looking out into the night, it's pure Tunnel Vision.
The last and only time anyone was allowed to walk freely in the tunnels was way back in 1992 during the grand opening—so basically, it's been off-limits since floppy disks were still cool. You can imagine how wild it feels to be the ones who 'reserved' the tunnels for ourselves… after a mere 33-year waitlist!
For our crew, this milestone felt like déjà vu. Flash back to October 14, 2022, Phase 3 of the project, when we paved the Port Mann Bridge deck from the Surrey side. At 4 AM, the entire westbound span was ours — four lanes wide, elbow to elbow — producing the now-iconic "bridge takeover" photo. Closures like that happen maybe once a decade, so you better believe we soaked it in.
Now it's time to flip the script. Starting tomorrow night, we'll pave the remaining 26 lane kilometers eastbound. Asphalt Foreman Sheldon Korell sums it up best:
"Same show, opposite direction. We pulled it off once — no hiccups — so why not do it again?"
Completion is set for late October. Until then, we're keeping our Tunnel Vision sharp.