Rough roads around Summerland slide could be needed for some time to come
What appears to be a fairly small slide blocking Highway 97 north of Summerland is actually part of a much larger slide in the same area that closed the highway for a couple of months in 2008.
“The rock material that came down to the highway on Monday, that was about 3,000 cubic metres, but that’s only a pretty small portion of the overall slide,” Steve Sirett, executive director for the Southern Interior for the Ministry of Transportation, told iNFOnews.ca today, Aug. 31.
He would not speculate how long the highway will be closed but a Ministry news release yesterday said it definitely won’t open before Labour Day.
“We’ve got equipment out there now monitoring the movement of the slide so, day to day, we’ll start to have a sense of how much the slide is moving,” Sirett said. “We’re still pretty confident it is. That will inform us on what the level of risk is to the highway and that will help us start assessing what are the options to both get the highway open – with our priority being for emergency responders followed by the public when it’s safe to do so – but also what the long term solution is going to be.”
Not only does the highway have to be deemed safe to traffic but the area has to be safe for workers, he noted.
“It (the 2008 slide) is that failure that’s now regressed further up the slope and that’s where we’re seeing the tension cracks above the highway and that’s where we’re seeing more movement,” Sirett said. “So that’s the area that’s really got us concerned and we’re trying to understand how it's moving and what it’s doing.”
At the same time, crews are out grading forest service roads on both sides of Okanagan Lake to make them safer for travel.
READ MORE: iN VIDEO: BC Transit taking long way between Kelowna and Penticton as bush roads upgraded
There will be patrols by the Commercial Safety and Enforcement Branch, tow trucks on standby, port-a-potties and, in some key locations, flaggers for at least this weekend.
Commercial vehicles over 14,600 kg – essentially anything bigger than a 5-ton cube van – will be restricted from using the roads.
Maps are going to be posted online later today and printed copies will be made available to travellers.
The recommended route from Penticton to Kelowna is via the 201 Forest Service Road, which will add about 1.5 hours to the normal travel time.
Logging trucks may be using the 201 next week but the Ministry is working with logging companies to make sure that’s done as safely as possible, Sirett said.
On the west side of the lake, primarily for local traffic between Summerland and Peachland, the Trout Main will be used, connecting the Summerland-Princeton Road to the Peachland Forest Service Road and Princeton Avenue in Peachland.
That is expected to take two hours rather than the 20 minutes it takes on Highway 97.
The shorter Glen Lake Forest Service Road was rejected because it’s too steep and narrow in places.
The grading is intended to make the roads suitable for cars to travel on.
“Obviously, they’re still forest service roads,” Sirett said. “They’re not highways, so people need to drive to their abilities, carefully and ensure they have all the supplies and their vehicles are in good shape.”
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