The Ministry of Transportation is making some progress to reopen Highway 17 at Bissett Creek east of Mattawa.
The highway has been closed since Monday after a culvert backed up forcing water from the waterway to run across the highway.
The amount of water has caused massive damage to the highway shoulder and embankment on both sides.
However, on Wednesday the MTO was able to use a temporary culvert to begin lowering the water level and made progress.
The MTO was able to start some repairs of the washed out areas on Thursday.
For now, what remains unknown is if the ground underneath Highway 17 was damaged.
On Wednesday, the MTO got images of the condition under the asphalt with Ground Penetrating Radar.
It’s been analyzing the images since then.
The MTO says it’s working to reopen the highway as quickly as possible but is again stressing it will reopen only when it’s safe to do so.
The closure means a massive detour for eastbound traffic from the north.
Motorists have to use Highway 11 South to Huntsville and then connect with Highway 60 which runs through Algonquin Park and remerges back on Highway 17 via Renfrew.
The detour adds about 90 minutes to a trip.
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