Highway 97 to reopen Wednesday

A major highway in B.C's Okanagan Valley will reopen to traffic at 5 a.m. PT Wednesday after it was closed more than two weeks ago due to an unstable rock face.

The transportation ministry made the announcement Monday after crews stabilized the hillside along Highway 97, just north of Summerland, following a series of blasts on the top layer of the rock face.

Removal of unstable material has reached the point where the slope is secure and traffic can resume,theministry said in the announcement. About 34,000 cubic metres of rock has been blasted from the site.

"I'd like to thank the public for their patience, especially residents and businesses in communities on both sides of the closure," Transportation Minister Kevin Falcon said Monday.

The closure has forced commuters between Kelowna and Penticton to make lengthy detours over secondary roads and logging roads, or use a free water taxi service provided by the provincial government.

"The traffic will be both lanes open all day Wednesday to get some traffic through, which has been backed up for the last couple of weeks," Dave Crebo, the ministry's communications director, said in a telephone interview.

"Effective 7 p.m. on Wednesday, the highway will resume the regular construction closures that had been in place for the Highway 97 Bentley road project," he said.

During the road widening project on Oct. 22, highway engineers discovered a huge crack in the slope above Highway 97, between Summerland and Peachland.

They advised closure of thehighway two days later, fearing that the hillside could collapse because the crack had begun to expand.