A Vancouver Island man who has spent decades driving from Parksville to Ucluelet for work was caught off-guard by dozens of waterfalls over the Easter long weekend.
Les Horne, 64, was driving along Highway 4 on Sunday morning when a combination of the "super heavy-duty Pacific storm" and "snowmelt" combined to form multiple cascading waterfalls over the mountain.
“I was like 'Wow, this is bizarre. That seems a little extraordinary,” he says, recalling the rain was coming down hard.
Horne started filming the waterfalls and counted more than 30 big and small streams of water.
“I’ve never seen that in all my years!” he says.
A total of 29 mm of rain fell on that day in the Kennedy Lake camp area of Ucluelet, according to Environment Canada.
In the video, Horne be heard saying, “Pretty bloody major epic for waterfalls."
He posted the video to social media and found many people were also surprised to see the water on the recently rebuilt highway.
"I just wanted to share with the people out there because I don't know if a lot of people have seen that much water coming off,” he says.
The highway project was a massive undertaking — and fraught with issues that have caused delays, including restrictions around the COVID-19 pandemic and major repairs that were required after blasting caused damage to the site in January 2020.
The project budget was increased to $53.96 million from $38.1 million, which includes $13.5 million in federal funding. The project was $16 million over budget and three years late.
“It was way over budget, but I can see where they got into the issues when they started opening that rock up,” says Horne, commending the Ministry of Transportation on the job.
A Ministry of Transportation and Infrastructure spokesperson said they, too, are excited about the highway.
"Our government is excited that the Kennedy Hill Safety Improvements project is nearing completion, and people will soon see the full benefits of this work," says the spokesperson.
The project was designed to ensure the highway is more resilient during extreme weather events.
"To divert water runoff from ending up on the road, the water is captured in new ditches and drainage structures," explains the spokesperson. "Expanded culverts carry the water under the road and into engineered downslope subdrains on the lakeside."
The highway to Pacific Rim National Park and the communities of Ucluelet and Tofino now has wider lanes and paved shoulders, including roadside barriers along the lake side of the highway.
A reminder to only film video when safe and not when driving.
With files from Darron Kloster
