Crews building a lock-block wall and berm at the site of the rockslide on Highway 97 (photo courtesy of the B.C. Government / Flickr)

By Liam Verster

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Work is progressing at the site of a rock slide in the Cental Okanagan, but the highway won’t be ready to open for another week or more.

A large rock slide occurred on Highway 97 north of Summerland August 28 and, as of Wednesday, September 6, the slope remained unstable.

“We’ve continued to monitor the slope since it occurred and we are still continuing to see movement of the slide at the same rate we’ve seen since starting,” Steve Sirett, the Ministry of Transportation and Infrastructure’s executive director for Southern Interior region told Vernon Matters Wednesday.

“Crews did work through the long weekend to construct a lock-block wall down the median of Highway 97. That’s the first step we wanted to take in order to get traffic flowing again, and now we’re in the process of constructing a large berm at the base of the wall between the wall and the slide.”

A berm is a pile of fill material placed up against the base of the slide, and once that has been completed it will allow for the highway to partially reopen to single-lane, alternating traffic.

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“Our current target for [partial reopening] is the weekend of September 16, and of course, this is dependent on productivity at the site and constructing this berm,” Sirett said.

“We are working within a slide area, and with that comes strict safety protocols to ensure worker safety. If conditions change, or if the weather gets a burst, it could delay the opening, so the next few days of work will provide us more confidence on achieving this target of the weekend of September 16.”

Sirett noted the reopening will be continuously monitored and may need to be closed for safety reasons if the slope continues to move.

“Once [the berm is established] and it gives us time to monitor how the slide responds to the construction of this berm, being in a single lane configuration will allow us to close the highway quickly should conditions change,” Sirett told Vernon Matters.

He also stated they do plan to reconfigure the lanes to allow travel in both directions on the highway, but not until it has been deemed safe to do so, and he did not have an estimated time line for when that could happen.

One lane of the highway was cleared of rocks Friday, September 1, to allow for emergency vehicles to travel through the area, and Sirett said emergency crews were able to use that lane over the long weekend.

While the work is ongoing, the detour routes established ahead of the long weekend will remain open for passenger vehicles and light commercial vehicles, which Sirett said have been well used so far.

He said graders have been continuously smoothing out the forest service roads that serve as detours and will continue that work even after the single lane of Highway 97 reopens.

Sirett added while work is ongoing to maintain the roads, they are not highway standard and advises people be cautious and prepared when travelling.

“if people are going to use [the detours] it is important that you’re fueled up, you’ve got some food and water, your car is in good condition, you’ve got proper tires on there, and you should be fine.”

The detours add up to 90 minutes driving time to the normal travel time.