A dark tunnel in the South Okanagan is shining light on an important piece of its history.
The 111-year old Adra Tunnel, perched above Naramata, was part of the Kettle Valley Railway (KVR) system.
But the tunnel has been closed to the public for about four decades — until now.
“It’s a 500-metre-long tunnel,” said Justin Shuttleworth, parks manager with the Regional District of Okanagan Similkameen (RDOS). “It does a nearly 180-degree turn in the mountain as it makes the turn in the switchback.”
After the railway ceased operations in the 1970s, the province acquired the tunnel but eventually deteriorating conditions made it unsafe and led to its closure in the 90s.
A group of volunteers called ‘Woodwackers’ had hopes of preserving and restoring it but its stability was further compromised after two separate fires in 2010 and 2012.
With the same spirit and hope, a new group called ‘Woodwackers 2.0’ formed several years ago and got to work.
“It took longer than we thought, but the community just continued to rally and show up with shovels and money and resources,” said Terry Field, the volunteer group’s project manager.
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About $1M was raised in community donations making the re-opening possible.
“It was a major undertaking to do this,” said Shuttleworth. “This is no small feat to have this tunnel open again for the public.”
The reopening involved many stages including the removal of thousands of cubic metres of rocks from the tunnel and a lot of stability work.
“We had a mining company go through. They would scale the rock down and then install rock bolt anchors to secure the rock above in the ceiling and on the sides,” Field said. “There was also a series of shotcrete, which is like sprayed concrete, onto certain areas in there to secure the tunnel. We also installed timbers s in an area of the tunnel to structurally support one of the concrete arches that was already in there.”
For tourism operators, such as Hoodoo Adventure Company, which rents bikes for the KVR trail, the re-opening of tunnel is expected to provide a boost for the local tourism industry.
“The KVR is a real unique experience, tourism, experience, tourism draw,” said Lyndie Seddon, the company owner. “So to be able to have an extra piece of history and just one more ‘wow factor’ on the trail, because there’s a lot of them, but this is another big one and it’s a unique one.”
The Adra tunnel is the longest tunnel on the KVR trail and very popular among cyclists who ride the 80-km distance between Kelowna and Penticton.
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