The rock face at the south end of the Overlanders Bridge has changed a lot as crews scale back the rock.
(JENNIFER STAHN / iNFOnews.ca)
October 23, 2014 - 10:48 AM
KAMLOOPS - About 450 cubic meters of rock is being scaled off of two spots in the city following some large rock slides in 2013.
Public Works Director Jen Fretz says the city had a spot along Hugh Allan Drive and On Victoria Avenue West at the south end of the Overlanders Bridge analyzed following slides in 2013 and it was determined rock scaling had to be done before rock fell on its own.
“We need to do it for safety reasons,” Fretz says, “So rocks don’t fall on people or cars.”
For the past week motorists travelling into downtown from the Summit Connector or heading up the Summit Connector from the North Shore may have faced delays as crews worked to remove 30 to 50 cubic meters of rock from the south end of the Overlanders Bridge.
Fretz notes crews were told they could not work during morning or afternoon rush hours to avoid disrupting traffic, which is why it has taken them a little longer to complete the work. Scaling is expected to be complete Thursday and once it's done, traffic coming off of the bridge will no longer be affected. The west sidewalk on the bridge will be closed until Friday while they continue blasting and moving rock as well.
Rock removal and block installation — a low wall to protect the roadway from falling rock — will still take a few more days to complete. To help accommodate this traffic into downtown will still face delays into next week.
Crews will then move to Hugh Allan Drive in Aberdeen. That location saw a large portion of rock give way last March and crews expect to remove about 400 cubic meters from that rock face.
By the time they are done the amount of rock removed from the two locations could fill about two-thirds of an Olympic-sized swimming pool.
To contact a reporter for this story, email Jennifer Stahn at jstahn@infonews.ca or call 250-819-3723. To contact an editor, email mjones@infonews.ca or call 250-718-2724.
News from © iNFOnews, 2014