OLYMPIC NATIONAL PARK — A boulder about 12 feet across fell onto U.S. Highway 101 early Thursday morning, blocking traffic until the afternoon and highlighting a concern about falling debris along Lake Crescent.
The state Department of Transportation anticipated falling rocks after the weather warmed up, but nothing like the boulder that fell Thursday, said Claudia Bingham Baker, Transportation spokeswoman.
She said state crews, who have been monitoring U.S. Highway 101 on Lake Crescent for falling debris since last weekend, discovered the boulder at about milepost 229 at about 2 a.m.
Crews had to wait until daylight to begin work and had the road back open by about 1:45 p.m., she said.
Crews pulled out the guardrail and used a bulldozer and excavator to push the boulder off the highway.
“The boulder wasn’t round, so it didn’t roll,” she said. “I don’t know if it ended up in the water.”
Crews then replaced the guardrail and patched the damaged pavement.
The rock measured about 9 feet by 7 feet by 12 feet, Bingham Baker said. She had no estimate of the rock’s weight.
She said one crew member who has worked that stretch of highway for many years remembers only three boulders ever falling into the road.
Two of those have have been in the past few months.
Another boulder, which blocked only one lane, fell onto the highway in November.
A tree fell earlier this month, killing a boy and injuring four others, on Highway 101 on Lake Crescent as well.
“The boulder coming down serves to underscore the importance of this big rehab project,” said Barb Maynes, spokeswoman for Olympic National Park.
The park has scheduled a 3-year project on Highway 101 along Lake Crescent to begin this spring, she said.
The park, along with the Federal Highway Administration as a cooperating agency, plans to replace sections of road bed, remove rock-fall hazards, repair or replace failing retaining walls and rotten guardrails, and repair culverts on 12.3 miles of the tourist and commuting route around the lake.
Part of the work includes rock scaling, which the park hasn’t done since 2012, Maynes said.
“It’s something we do periodically,” she said.
During rock scaling, crews will either knock hazardous rocks down or bolt them into place while also stabilizing cliff faces, she said.
The park has not yet awarded a contract for the project.
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Reporter Jesse Major can be reached at 360-452-2345, ext. 56250, or at jmajor@peninsula dailynews.com.
