Photo: BC Trans

Travellers heading to and from Tofino, Ucluelet and Pacific Rim National Park will have a limited window to get to their destination after a section of Highway 4 west of Port Alberni was badly damaged in a rock slide.

A statement from the Ministry of Transportation says contractors have managed to secure one lane of the road at Kennedy Hill and passenger vehicles or light pickups will be permitted to travel between noon and 8 p.m. Friday.

The route will be closed indefinitely after 8 p.m. as workers begin installation of a portable bridge.

The highway is undergoing safety improvements and the ministry says a large volume of rock crashed onto the route Thursday taking away the shoulder and one lane of the highway on the side of a steep cliff.

The road was closed at the time, no one was hurt and the ministry says the contractor worked tirelessly to rebuild the road base that had sloughed away, but the work did not proceed as quickly as engineers had estimated.