It will take about 6,000 cubic metres of blast rock to fill in the area where a January 6th landslide occurred in Peachland.
A collection of seeping ground water is the likely cause of the slide that took out a section of Renfrew Road and sent debris down below to Highway 97.
Now the repair work is underway, using fill trucked in from a quarry near Summerland.
“We start at bottom and slowly bench our way up to the top,” says District of Peachland Director of Operations Joe Mitchell. “We’ll be hauling the material in at night when the highway is quiet, placing it on the side of the road, then during the day we’ll be placing it in the (slide area).
The work will not affect highway traffic.
Mitchell is confident there won’t be any further slide activity at the site when the project is completed.
“It’s designed to not come down again. It’s designed to accommodate the water and accommodate any pressures around including the highway pressures. It should be safe to go forever.”
Mitchell says the work should be completed in about five weeks at cost of about $600,000.