Wood Buffalo RCMP, in consultation with Alberta Transportation, reopened Highway 63, Friday night. The phased reopening began at 11p.m.
Marked police vehicles will leave both the north and south ends of the highway in 15 minute intervals. Police will bring about 50 vehicles through at a time.
This is being done in an attempt to minimize the amount of traffic on the highway at any given time. Police vehicles will also be able to set the speed of traffic, as maintenance crews continue to plow and sand the highway.
RCMP say while the road and weather conditions have improved slightly, visibility is still reduced and many areas of the highway are still covered in snow and ice. Motorists are being urged to drive with extreme caution.
Alberta Transportation closed Highway 63 in both directions between the Highway 55 junction near Lac La Biche, and Secondary Highway 881, Thursday evening. Some traffic was being rerouted through Secondary Highway 881, although RCMP say that highway is in poor condition.
Highway 881, 35 kilometres north of Janvier was also closed for nearly two hours Friday afternoon, due to a collision.
Highway 63 was closed for over 24 hours because of icy conditions due to freezing rain coupled with fog, wind, very cold temperatures and falling snow. The province says the maintenance contractor has been applying sand and salt to the highway since early Friday morning, but variable weather made it difficult to stay ahead.
Motorists can follow Alberta Transportation on Twitter @ABTransComm for updates on road closures and highway conditions.
(Courtesy: Alberta Transportation)
A truck driver who called Global News says he sat in line on Highway 63 for 12 hours, waiting for it to reopen, Friday. The driver says he eventually became so fed up he turned around to take the turn-off at Highway 881. He estimates hundreds of vehicles were waiting in line for Highway 63 to reopen, describing a massive line of vehicles from the start of the closure at Highway 55 to Fort McMurray, which is a distance of about 280 kilometres.
Another trucker, John Westland, drove from Fort McMurray to Grassland Thursday, and described the conditions as "nightmarish."
"Just pure ice most of the time, a real slow go. Like I said, about six hours from Fort Mac down to Grassland. The road conditions were just horrible, just horrible."
Westland says he counted at least a dozen big, tanker trucks in the ditch during his travels.
Westland says, unfortunately, poor conditions are just part of the job.
"If we're not rolling, we're not making money, but it's part of the job. That's trucking. You have to deal with it and if it's not safe to go, you don't go. I'm not going to kill myself for anybody else."
Because Highway 63 is such a busy highway, officials say the decision to close it was not taken lightly. RCMP in the area say road conditions are terrible.
"What we've got is icy and snow packed conditions with accumulating snow on the roads (in) the area, and it's just making for terrible winter driving conditions," Sergeant Tom Kalis said Thursday night.
"We had about 40 collisions in the Boyle area during the day (Thursday) and another eight or nine in and around Lac La Biche due to road conditions and some of them were quite serious collisions," said Kalis. "Some of them were injury crashes involving ambulance transport."
Travel is still not recommended at this time. Motorists are advised to use caution and obey all signs, signals, and flag people. Officers are encouraging those who do not need to travel to wait until the conditions improve.
For up to date road conditions in Alberta, visit the Alberta Motor Association's website.
The following pictures of the conditions on Highway 63 and Highway 881 were supplied by Global viewers:
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