The road to Whittier will reopen Friday, more than a month after a massive rock slide buried the pavement, the state Department of Transportation said Tuesday.

Beginning at noon Friday, the Portage Glacier Highway will reopen to two lanes of traffic. Last Friday, the road opened to limited one-lane traffic guided by a pilot car.

A rock slide dumped a 300-foot-wide pile of rubble as high as 30 feet on the only road to isolated Whittier on April 11. The Transportation Department spent weeks plotting its course of action, drilling into and blasting rock from a face above the road, then clearing the debris, which consisted of boulders as large as some of the construction equipment.

Planners were concerned about the potential for large boulders, rotten with numerous fissures and hanging over the highway, falling on the cleanup crew or future travelers.

The anticipated opening of the road was repeatedly pushed back while the work took place.

Now, officials say, the end is in sight. Crews plan to continue hauling rock from the area, with the last shovel-full scheduled to be removed at the end of their shift this evening.

After that, transportation officials plan to begin repairing and rebuilding the road, which will be initially surfaced in gravel and opened to two lanes of travel.

Limited travel, from 5 to 7 a.m., will be allowed through the slide area and tunnel Friday morning, DOT officials said. Two-lane travel will begin at noon.

The Alaska Railroad Corp. also said Tuesday that its passenger shuttle between Portage and Whittier will offer its last runs Thursday. The railroad will begin its normal summer passenger operations on Saturday.

The DOT says some rubble will remain in the area until the fall, when its crews plan to return to finish cleaning up and to pave the road.