Highway 758 has re-opened — 100 days after being swallowed up by June’s flooding.
The stretch of highway, which accesses Bragg Creek from the southwest, was officially re-opened to traffic Sept. 28.
When the Elbow River began to overflow on June 20, the force of the flooding altered the course of the river, destroying 600 metres of Highway 758 and closing off access to Bragg Creek.
Crews and contractors have logged about 2,400 hours into the reconstruction.
“Highway 758 required extensive engineering and reconstruction work to reopen, and today marks yet another milestone in a series of significant work and investment to help residents of Bragg Creek and southern Alberta recover and rebuild,” remarked Kyle Fawcett, associate minister of regional recovery and reconstruction.
Before beginning the highway construction, the Elbow River had to be rerouted to move the river away from the work site.
According to a media release from Alberta Transportation, the group worked alongside Alberta Environment and Sustainable Resource Development, and Fisheries and Oceans Canada to ensure the proper protocols were followed when dealing with fish capture, silt control and water quality monitoring.
While the highway is open, recovery work along the stretch of road will continue.
To date, 862 of the 985 kilometres of provincial roads closed due to flood damage have been re-opened.
