Kyle Hall photo

YRB crews were busy busting up the huge slab of mountain that fell onto Highway 3A Saturday night.

Twenty-five cubic metres of rock crashed into the ditch on Highway 3A Saturday night after the forces of nature succeeded in prying it free.

The 58 tonnes of rock thudded harmlessly into the soil near the highway, two kilometres west of Taghum, neither hitting any vehicles nor damaging pavement, but sprayed chunks of rock out across the westbound lane of the highway.

It was a natural occurrence, said Ministry of Transportation (MOT) spokeperson Jeff Knight on Monday, with the winter expanding and contracting forces of nature working away at the rock face.

“Rock fall is a natural event that can be triggered by freezing and thawing,” he said, noting that this was the cause of the slope’s failure.

A geo-technical assessment was done first before any rock was cleared to ensure that the slope was stable and there wasn’t any concern of more rock coming down, said Knight.

The highway was down to single lane, alternating traffic for much of the weekend and was cleared by MOT crews by noon Sunday. But it remained at single lane, alternating traffic until 5 p.m. as crews continued to clear rock that went into the ditch and shoulder area.

The rock was hauled to a nearby gravel pit to be used by the department in road maintenance projects in the area.

tim@nelsondailynews.com

Controversial Passing Lane to Go Before Public

The passing lane slated for just outside Nelson will have its day in the sun this month at an MOT open house.

MOT officials confirmed they will air the plan for the addition of a passing lane between Granite Road and Grohman Narrows on Feb. 10, from 4-8 p.m., at the Prestige Lakeside Resort.

MOT spokesperson Jeff Knight said the location of the passing lane won’t be moved, despite a letter sent by city council to the local MOT office requesting information about the $6.5 million highway project outside of Nelson “expressing concern and requesting information.”

According to MOT, blasting of the granite walls along Highway 3A west of Nelson will begin in mid-April 2010 for a westbound passing lane. Around 1.8 kilometres of highway will be widened on the south side of the highway, meaning several sections of granite rock cuts will need to be blasted.

Source: MOT and NDN files

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