Road closure revisions starting Monday north of Soap Lake
Traffic control road closures will change Monday along the stretch of state Route 17 north of Soap Lake.
COURTESY GRAPHIC/WSDOT
SOAP LAKE — Traffic control measures will be changed for a few weeks on a project to remove some of the rock slope along State Route 17 from Soap Lake to the Lake Lenore Caves.
Sebastian Maraga, communications consultant for the Washington Department of Transportation, said the changes will go into effect March 25, and may last at least three weeks.
“The contractor will move to single-lane alternating traffic with 20-minute holds,” Moraga wrote in a press release. “At 20 minutes, traffic will be released in one direction, then stopped to allow traffic to clear in the other direction. The road will be open to two-way traffic without restrictions during non-working hours.”
Loads more than 12 feet wide will be restricted through the work zone during working hours, he wrote.
The project does not have a designated detour route, according to the DOT website.
Currently traffic is allowed through the work zone for 15 minutes at the top of each hour, then stopped until the next hour.
Crews are removing rocks and stabilizing the remaining slopes where SR 17 runs between the rock face and the lakes, a stretch of about 10 miles. Work began in mid-February and will continue throughout the summer, with projected completion in August or September.
Total cost is about $7.6 million.
Miguel Castillo, DOT engineer on the project, said in an earlier interview that it’s a time-consuming process due to the nature of the work.
Castillo said rocks, some of them the size of a car, have been falling in the road as a result of the erosion of the rock face, so the goal is to stabilize the embankment. Part of the work is to pry out the loose rocks and remove them. Spots that are subject to erosion but haven’t yet worked their way loose will be bolted to the solid rock behind them.
Steel netting will be installed over the cliff to keep any other rocks that still fall from landing in the road, Castillo said.
In addition to the work on the cliff, crews will be grinding down the existing road surface, applying a new layer of asphalt and adding rumble strips.
Cheryl Schweizer can be reached via email at cschweizer@columbiabasinherald.com.