South Okanagan rock slide to keep Hwy 3A closed until weekend at least

Hwy 3A remains closed in the South Okanagan after a Tuesday morning rock slide.

In the hours that followed the slide, which shut down the small highway route between Kaleden and Keremeos, DriveBC warned motorists to “expect a lengthy closure.”

The Ministry of Transportation confirmed that this morning, saying that Hwy 3A will remain closed through Friday, April 18.

It’s unclear at this time if there’s a chance for the highway to reopen over the long weekend.

“A geotechnical assessment has determined additional blasting and rock removal is required before highway cleanup can begin,” the Ministry said in a statement. “That work plan is in development.”

According to the Ministry, crews and equipment will be ready to start cleaning up the site as soon as the area is deemed safe by geotechnical engineers.

“The slide is within a known rock-fall area,” the statement added. “The wide rock catchment ditches in this area helped reduce the amount of rock on the road from this incident and prevent minor rock-falls in the area from blocking the road.”

While the route is closed, passenger vehicles are able to detour around the slide via Green Mountain Road, which adds around half an hour of travel time.

The detour for commercial vehicles, and regular motorists who don’t want to use Green Mountain Road, is through Osoyoos using Hwy 97 and Hwy 3. That route is around 45 extra minutes of travel time.

The rock slide happened near the west end of Yellow Lake.