OLYMPIC NATIONAL PARK — After removing 850 truckloads of dirt, workers were still toiling Tuesday to get to the bottom of the fill washed out when about 100 feet of Hurricane Ridge Road collapsed — eliminating the only paved road to the top of the mountain.
The work to remove the fine-grained fill that was used to build the road when it opened in 1958 is slightly behind schedule, said Olympic National Park spokeswoman Barb Maynes.
Original estimates were that the fill removal would be finished Monday or Tuesday, but revised estimates put completion at the end of today, Maynes said.
She said the delay shouldn’t affect the overall estimate to reopen the road in early March, six weeks after its Jan. 18 slipout.
The job is contracted at $1.4 million. Federal Highway Administration engineers estimate that the total cost will exceed $2 million when the work is done.
The two-lane road to the popular snow recreation area, Hurricane Ridge, 17 miles south of Port Angeles, crumbled about a half-mile north of Heart O’ the Hills campground, blocking all highway access past the slipout.
No detour was possible around the washout, park officials have said.
“They [Bruch & Bruch Construction Inc. of Port Angeles, which was hired for the job,] have now removed about 17,000 cubic yards of fill,” Maynes said.
“That translates, roughly, to about 850 truckloads.”
As the workers dug deeper down the 65-foot cliff of fill, the sediment was more and more saturated with water.
“With more water in it, they can’t put as much in the truck,” Maynes said. “So that slowed them down just a little bit.”
After reaching the bottom of the embankment, the crews will replace a 24-inch culvert, through which water passes under the road, with a 42-inch culvert.
“That way, it will allow more water to pass through more efficiently,” Maynes said.
She said that it doesn’t appear that the present culvert failed.
“As they continue digging, and it is wetter and wetter, there is some indication that there was some leakage, but there wasn’t a massive failure,” she said.
Maynes said workers also will install what are called rock drains — or French drains — that will help water to pass through in other areas besides what goes through the culvert.
“They’ll also bring in some rocks to rebuild some of the slope to help with drainage in other areas.”
Instead of the fine-grained fill, the road will be rebuilt using heavier rocks and rougher grain sediment, Maynes said.
“That was built many years ago, and it is not the standard we will use today,” she said. “This will help prevent it from happening again.”
Other portions of the road built upon fill could see the same fate if they become too saturated, park staff have said.
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Reporter Paige Dickerson can be reached at 360-417-3535 or at paige. dickerson@peninsuladailynews.com.
