PORT ANGELES — A section of Elwha River Road teeters on the edge of collapse after a landslide undermined a 20-foot stretch of roadway.
The landslide has taken all but a small chunk of earth out from under the asphalt pavement, leaving sagging blacktop hovering perilously in the air.
Road crews erected barricades and large dirt berms across the road Tuesday to prevent access to the slide area.
Officials say heavy rains during the last several days are responsible for the hillside giving way.
Loose dirt still tumbles past a twisted guardrail, heading downhill on the muddy slope descending to the Elwha River’s edge more than 300 feet below.
The section of the road, less than a half-mile east of the one-lane bridge over the Elwha River, has been undermined before — a landslide in the mid-1980s prompted officials to convert the two-lane stretch into a one-lane area, County Road Engineer Ross Tyler said.
The undermined lane was never rebuilt.
The rest of this story appears in today’s Peninsula Daily News. Click on “Subscribe” to get the PDN delivered to your home or office.
