Water taxi to aid those stranded by Okanagan highway closure

Afree water taxi service has been put in place to transport people affected by the closure of Highway 97 between Kelowna and Penticton.

The B.C. Ministry of Transportation has hired two 75-passenger water taxis to run the hourly service from 5 a.m. to 9 p.m. PT, seven days a week.

"We know that a lot of people have been inconvenienced, and we are very pleased to team up with BC Transit to deliver this service," Transportation and Infrastructure Minister Kevin Falcon said in a press release.

"The ministry is doing everything it can to reopen the highway as quickly as possible, but we will only reopen when it's safe to do so. In the interim, this water taxi service will provide another way to help people get where they need to go."

The water taxis will operate between the Summerland Yacht Club and the Okanagan Lake Park water taxi terminal.

BC Transit will deliver a ground shuttle service, which will take passengers to and from the Queensway bus loop in Kelowna, the Westbank transit exchange and the Cherry Lane Shopping Centre transit exchange in Penticton.

Highway 97 was closed Oct. 24 when engineers discovered a massive crack in the rock face above the highway during construction of a road-widening project.

Crews are in the process of blasting the hillside to clear the area of the unstable material.

B.C.'s chief geo-technical engineer has said it could be a month before the highway is reopened.