Snowstorm delays reopening of northern Cape Breton roadway

A heavy snowfall has delayed work on a section of the Cabot Trail between Ingonish, N.S., and Neils Harbour.

The roadway was expected to reopen on Friday, but Parks Canada says that's unlikely as crews are now clearing snow from their work sites.

Part of the work near the Broad Cove campground, along Warren Brook, involves stabilizing the road bed after it was washed away by high winds and heavy rain late last month.

"Trying to compact this road is like trying to build a mud pie," Robie Gourd, project manager with Parks Canada told CBC's Information Morning Cape Breton on Thursday.

"It's really hard when you're trying to compact stuff and it's so saturated that the water's squishing out of both sides of the roller. A little bit of water is OK, but supersaturated soils, it's not making any progress." 

Gourd said road crews worked until about midnight on Wednesday to get a jump on the work.

Another two days of clear weather are now needed to finish the project that would reconnect northern Cape Breton. 

Showers in the forecast

By Wednesday afternoon, Environment Canada was predicting rain showers for Saturday and Sunday. And that could mean more delays in getting the road reopened. 

"They have so many days when they can work," said Gourd. 

"Days when we're sort of high and dry, or I guess the opposite of that … soaked and wet, we have to sit back and just wait for conditions to improve before we can actually go in there."

Environment Canada's website reports that some areas of the island received 20 to 30 centimetres of snow between Wednesday night and Thursday morning.

The precipitation follows a late November storm that brought high winds and nearly 300 millimetres of rain to parts of Victoria County.

The rainfall left some residents strained and caused widespread damage to both federal and provincial roadways.

Gourd said the rain continued to pour, with another 200 millimetres falling over two weeks since the storm occurred.

"If we can all just hope for good weather, I think that's going to make us. That's the break we need right now."