ROCK ISLAND, WA -- Highway 28 east of Wenatchee is closed until Wednesday while workers hired by the Transportation Department remove rocks overhanging the roadway.

Highway 28 will be closed until Wednesday as workers remove hanging rocks from the roadside

The work that began Friday is the last phase of an $8.5 million project to stabilize basalt cliffs that bring the threat of falling rocks to the highway and Burlington Northern Santa Fe tracks along the Columbia River near Rock Island Dam.

Dangling from ropes on the 600-foot cliff, the workers are prying loose rocks and boulders, some as large as a car.

They expect to remove enough rocks to fill about 200 dump trucks.