Frustration grows over ongoing rockslide work near Summerland
Global News
The Ministry of Transportation and Infrastructure told Global News that a project update is expected to be released on Thursday.
It’s been almost a year since a massive rockslide came down on Highway 97 near Summerland, and work is still ongoing to clean up the debris.
Officials are addressing the impact that the work is having on local communities.
“I think there’s a lot of frustration with the travelling public you know, there’s a lot of traffic up and down the valley,” said Summerland’s Mayor Doug Holmes.
“We rely on this highway it’s our lifeblood here and there’s a lot of road rage out there, a lot of anger. With the summer season here, tourists coming, it’s just going to get worse.”
Since the original rock fall, the highway has been partially open with two lanes, one in each direction.
Traffic in the area has been slow moving and there are daily intermittent closures to allow crews to work as well as longer temporary closures for blasting.
“I know that they tried to do the blasting during non-peak hours,” said Holmes. “But the reality is that in summertime, there are no peak hours. It’s just busy all the time every day.”
The Mayor of Summerland believes that if the work continues during Okanagan’s peak season it could have a significant impact on tourism.