Traffic control zone, closures to be ‘drastically reduced’ at Hwy 97 rockslide site

Phase one of the work at a rockslide on Highway 97 near Summerland had been completed.

The Ministry of Transportation and Infrastructure (MotI) confirmed on Thursday that blasting work will wrap up this week, leading to a reduced work zone and less lengthy closures.

“Crews over the last several months have been working pretty hard on what we’re calling our first phase of work, which is on loading the slide,” said Steve Sirett, executive director for the Southern Interior region.

“That’s been the drilling and blasting that’s been occurring over the winter into the spring into the start of the summer here.”

Notably, a one-hour full closure will take place Thursday night, July 4, from 10 p.m. to 11 p.m.

2:11 Work continues at rockslide on Highway 97

Initially, crews expected to remove around 60,000 cubic metres of material from the rockslide.

To date, crews have removed 46,000 cubic metres of debris from the slide, which the ministry says has been determined to be enough.

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“That phase is complete, and we’ve removed enough material or unloaded it from the slide and will now be moving into our next phase, which is (adding) really large anchors into the slope to continue the stabilization efforts,” Sirett said.

This is good news for travellers as the Ministry says the more frequent, longer closures that drivers have been experiencing will be drastically reduced.

The last planned hour-and-a-half closure is for this weekend, but drivers can still expect daily intermittent 20-minute closures.

“We’ve got one more plan for this Saturday,” Sirett said.

“That’s mainly for worker safety to continue into phase one, but they’ll be far less frequent. There’s no more planning and closures after that.”

2:45 Man walks from Kelowna to Penticton due to rock slide

Moving into phase two of the work also means that crews will be able to reduce the length of the traffic control zone.

Plans are in the works to bring the zone down to two kilometres from five kilometres.

“We’re essentially pulling it back from where it starts out Summerland, back to Callan Road is where it will open back up to four lanes,” Sirett said.

“From the south coming into the slide to Callan Road is where the construction zone will be. And people will be asked to slow down and go through still one lane of traffic using the southbound lanes.”

There is still no timeline for when the highway will fully reopen, but phase two of the work is expected to continue at least until the end of the year.

“We’ll spend the majority of the summer and probably into the fall, putting in a little over 300 anchors and that’s part of the long-term plan to stabilize it,” Sirett said.

“Following that, we’ll be constructing a retaining wall, essentially to help get the highway back up into four lanes and the expectation is when we’re done that the site is stabilized for the foreseeable future and ideally not an issue for a long, long time.”

Drivers are still asked to check DriveBC for the most up-to-date information about the slide, as well as obey traffic control and the speed limits while in the area.

2:27 Creative ways around highway closure