KEREMEOS, B.C. — It was a massive rock slide that sent one person to hospital and closed Highway 3 west of Keremeos for a week.
Now, almost a year later, the B.C. Ministry of Transportation and Infrastructure is building three-metre high concrete wall to help prevent falling rocks from hitting traffic.
Since the slide, a small section of Highway 3 has turned to a 60 km/hour with traffic limited to two lanes because of lingering danger.
“I know there’s grumbling, there’s lots of grumbling about it,” says Della Barrett, a Keremeos resident.
However, Gary Bratty who drives through that area almost daily for work and says he hasn’t been inconvenienced.
“It hasn’t gotten in the way too much,” explains Bratty.
The changes were made because the area is still prone to falling rocks.
Thursday afternoon, a couple of rocks the size of footballs crashed down near the construction workers, who are on on constant alert.
“There’s lots of big rocks on top that can fall down anytime,” says Victor Correia.
The wall is expected to be complete by the end of November, and the Ministry will open an additional lane will be opened then.
The Ministry says reopening all four lanes may take another year, when they start the second phase of the construction work.
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