LAKE SUTHERLAND — Work crews opened a short stretch of the Olympic Peninsula’s main highway Thursday morning that had been closed because of a mudslide the night before.
At about 11 a.m., state Department of Transportation employees had cut and pushed back fallen tree branches far enough to open one lane of U.S. Highway 101, said Bill Riley, Port Angeles area maintenance and operations superintendent for the department.
“It was a tricky little mess to untangle this morning,” Riley said.
On Wednesday evening, a mudslide near milepost 233, just east of Maple Grove Road, closed the highway.
Traffic was detoured via state highways 112 and 113 for the remainder of the night, which tacked on about an hour to the drive between Port Angeles and Forks.
Although workers had cleared both lanes of debris Thursday morning, they kept the westbound lane closed to allow equipment and workers to continue the task of clearing mud that had accumulated in the roadside ditch, Riley said.
The delay to travelers was a couple of minutes in either direction, Riley said.
Both lanes were expected to open by Thursday evening, allowing the free flow of traffic across the top of the Olympic Peninsula.
However, during the day today, Department of Transportation workers are expected to shut down one of the lanes to finish the cleanup, Riley said.
