Fraser/Thompson Canyons British Columbia - Craig Takahashi has witnessed the catastrophic damage to British Columbia's highway network first hand.
 
The CN employee's chosen run is the Fraser Canyon and on Thursday he made his first daylight run in three weeks.
 
"There's literally hundreds of work trucks at Tank Hill and Jackass Mountain and millions of dollars of equipment being run," he explained in the Vernon and Area Community Forum on Facebook.
 

The Tank Hill washout - Date? Photographer?

Along with the massive number of people and machinery working to repair highways, he added that his own union brothers and sisters at CN and CP are also working around the clock to get things fixed.
 
He shared this information because he wants people to grasp just how big of an undertaking this work is, with many workers in all trades and professions being brought in from across Canada to help.
 
"I know we are all anxious about when the highways are going to be open, but we've all seen the drone footage and pictures of the devastating damage done to both the highways and railroads," said Takahashi.
 
"You guys and ladies realize that many of these people will spend Christmas in hotel rooms far away from their families to get the roads and tracks repaired to get people and goods moving across BC again. Please have patience with us, and remember we are people too with families to go home to. I know my own little girls are proud their daddy works for the railroad."
 
On Thursday, Transportation Minister Rob Fleming said that the incredible efforts of all involved in the repair process has bumped up the timeline for the Coquihalla Highway to reopen.
 
Instead of the original estimate of late January, the Province has now said that the highway will likely open to commercial traffic in early January.
 
Although the general public will still not be permitted to use the major route, it would allow the essential travel restrictions on Highway 3 to be lifted so motorists could get between the Lower Mainland and Interior for recreational reasons.
 
The timeline for Highway 1 through the Fraser Canyon to reopen remains the same, as the Province expects commercial traffic to be running through that corridor by mid-January.
 
Author unknown.