By Ken Park
Olympic Peninsula News Group
OLYMPIA — State Department of Transportation officials were expected to begin repairs of a massive landslide across state Highway 112 on Monday.
The landslide near Clallam Bay was initially caused by rainstorms on Nov. 15 that brought down a hillside’s soil and debris to cover about 325 feet of the highway, measuring some 275 feet wide. The slide broke a water main and, after trucking potable water in, Clallam County Public Utility District crews created a bypass to ensure water service in Clallam Bay.
On Nov. 28, more debris extended the slide another 200 feet across the roadway.
DOT has announced that the slide probably won’t be cleared and the road fixed until March.
Last Wednesday, the agency announced in a blog that it expected to receive bids from five contractors today “and with a rapid award and execution process, start work the week of Jan. 24.”
The work will take four to eight weeks to complete, according to DOT.
Final engineering, design and survey work were completed in the first two weeks of January, allowing DOT to obtain the permits it needed to work along the hillside and out of the state right of way, the agency said.
The hope is that repairs will serve as a long-term solution to reduce the severity of future slides in the area.
“Work to reopen the highway includes removing hillside and roadway debris, slope stabilization efforts, roadway repairs, installation of new guardrail, replacement of damaged culvert pipes, erosion control and seeding,” according to the blog post.
A temporary bypass route, typically used by logging trucks, has been established at Eagle Crest Way and will remain open during the work.
Regarding another slide on 112, farther east at milepost 32 near Jim Creek, DOT is awaiting final design recommendations to reopen that area.
“Those recommendations determine our final plans and proposal documents we provide to contractors,” according to the blog.
DOT will seek bids on the work to be done there beginning Feb. 4, with work beginning the week of Feb. 14.
A detour around the slide has been set up.
At milepost 15.8, more than 300 feet of hillside toppled over onto the road, while earth movement at milepost 32 and Jim Creek has made the roadway unstable for vehicles.
