Lane closures planned today on Stevens Pass

WENATCHEE - There will be intermittent daytime lane closures today on Stevens Pass as work crews remove rocks from slopes on the west side along U.S. Highway 2.

Contractor crews working for MidWest Rockfall Inc. found some very large loose rocks in various locations on the unstable slope west of the Stevens Pass summit. Those rocks have the potential to break through the protective concrete barriers and reach the highway.

To keep drivers safe, crews will intermittently close all lanes of US 2 as they remove the rocks. During the brief, 10-minute closures, flaggers will stop westbound traffic at the summit and eastbound traffic at the Iron Goat Interpretive Center near Scenic.

"We hadn't planned to completely close the highway at all for this project," said Mike Andreini, Washington State Department of Transportation project engineer, "But the size and location of these boulders is a challenge. The only safe way to bring them down is to pull all the big ones in a single day and hopefully minimize delays for drivers."

The two eastbound lanes of US 2 below the slopes have been closed since construction started this spring, with traffic shifted to one lane in each direction in the two westbound lanes. During the full highway closures, crews don't expect the closures to last longer than 10 minutes unless a rock breaks through the barriers and reaches the highway.

Crews began work in early May to remove the loose and unstable material. Once crews complete rock scaling work, they'll install bolts to help stabilize the slope and drape the area with steel nets to catch any loose material.

This $5.5 million project is expected to be complete in 2014.

- Staff report