LAKE DELTON, Wis. (AP) -- State transportation leaders have reopened part of a highway washed away when Lake Delton vanished this summer.

Heavy rains on June 9 tore a new channel from the lake to the Wisconsin River. The lake drained dry, taking homes and a section of County Highway A with it.

The state Transportation Department has spent about $5 million on repairs since then. It's built a dam in front of the breach, filled the hole with new earth and a reinforcing wall and laid 650 feet of new highway on top.

Bill Oliva is the project supervisor for the state.

State and local officials hope to begin refilling the lake perhaps as early as this week.

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