It was another day of digging and drilling at the Highway 97 rockslide near Summerland.
Work on the slide came to a halt earlier this week because of the weather, but has since resumed, and there is some encouraging news coming from the Ministry of Transportation.
It says workers were able to set off a few small blasts on Wednesday and that the blasting is slowing the movement of the slide.
When Global News arrived on site earlier Thursday, an excavator was up on the edge of the hillside, moving dirt and exposing what appeared to be a giant boulder, or chunk of dirt, half way up the slide.
Around noon, the excavator left the slide, with experts taking a good look at it. Shortly after, the giant chunk was reduced to rubble. The Ministry of transportation says that’s a sign of progress.
“We are seeing some positive trends,” said Mike Lorimer from the Ministry of Transportation. “As we’re doing the blasting, the drilling — we’ve actually got an excavator on site now that is moving some of the material — that’s moving some of the weight and taking some of the pressure off.
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“So, what we expect to see is stabilization. What we’re seeing is stabilization, so we’re going in a positive direction.”
Blasting is expected to resume on Friday and the Ministry promises there will be no blasting during the morning and afternoon rush hour.
In the meantime, the Callan Road detour appears to be getting the job done. And a word of caution to travelers: the Ministry says when blasting does resume, motorists can expect delays of up to 45 minutes.
The important question motorists want an answer to is when will Highway 97 re-open? The Ministry doesn’t have an answer to that question, but does say it might have an idea sometime next week.
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