Mother nature has created a headache for motorists and City of Vernon crews.
A portion of Okanagan Avenue, west of Fulton Road and near Elephant Storage, has failed.
"We don't believe it relates to infrastructure. it relates to natural water flows and freezing and thawing," said James Rice, public works manager.
A city employee noticed extensive cracking on the south lane of Okanagan Avenue Wednesday and engineering consultants were called in to review the scene.
"It's a preliminary assessment but it could be related to warming temperatures — a frost heave," said Rice.
"It's amazing what water will do. It's a significant heave because it's possibly impacted 100 to 200 metres of roadway."
The area is deemed to be safe but Okanagan Avenue is down to single-lane alternating traffic.
Rice is urging only local residents to use Okanagan Avenue and other motorists to avoid the area and use 25th Avenue to commute into town.
Private property is not affected by the frost heave, but Rice admits the road failure could get worse.
"We will continuously monitor it," he said.
"There is a lot of ground water in that area so it contributes to heaving."
Geotechnical information is being gathered and details on repairs may not be known until early next week, meaning single-lane-alternating traffic will likely continue throughout the weekend.