A rock slide occurred Monday, Jan. 27 at approximately 12:25 p.m., 8 km west of Standing Rock in between Keremeos and Hedley.
The approximate 150 meter wide slide covered all four lanes of the highway closing it in both directions until it was finally reopened early Thursday evening.
Students and people commuting to and from work affected by the slide either stayed in Keremeos or travelled via detours on the Nickel Plate route, Hwy 5A, Hwy 3A and some used the Princeton-Summerland Road.
Large boulders rolled across the highway causing damage to power lines which in turn, caused temporary power outages—reports coming in from Princeton, north to Apex and east to Oliver.
The power outage was reported to have lasted about an hour.
On Tuesday, the site experienced further rockfall and weather including snowfall delaying Ministry engineers having access via helicopter to the top of the mountain where the falling rock originated.
On Thursday morning, the Ministry of Transportation and Infrastructure modified the bottom of the mountain slope and created an earth berm along the slide area.
The highway was opened to two lanes of traffic with a 60 km speed limit on Jan. 30 at approximately 5 p.m.
As of Monday, Feb. 3, the slide area still maintains the two lane restriction and the 60 km speed limit posting.
For further updates please visit the Drive BC website at www.drivebc.com