Date:  Thursday, October 28, 2010

Contact: Bronlea Mishler, WSDOT Communications, 206-440-4697 (Shoreline)
Mark Sawyer, Project Engineer, 425-649-4429 (Bellevue)

AUBURN – Just in time for the start of rainy fall weather, contractor crews working for the Washington State Department of Transportation (WSDOT) completed a new containment wall along SR 18 in Peasley Canyon and reopened the westbound truck-climbing lane to traffic this morning. The lane has been closed since January, after a mudslide came down across the highway.

Frequent commuters along SR 18 have watched as WSDOT crews built the new 10-foot-high, 600-foot-long containment wall along the westbound lanes of the highway near SR 167. The wall extends east from the existing containment wall, adjacent to the truck-climbing lane, and will prevent future slide debris from reaching the roadway, especially during the rainy fall and winter months. Crews began construction on the wall in early August.

“A big benefit of completing this containment wall is that we can reopen the truck-climbing lane again,” Project Engineer Mark Sawyer said. “That’s going to help traffic move better through this area. Plus, the wall will catch any slide debris so we can keep the road open for freight haulers.”

A landslide Jan.14 buried the westbound lanes of SR 18 under several inches of mud and debris. WSDOT crews cleared the slide and reopened SR 18 to traffic within five days, but the truck-climbing lane remained closed until a new containment wall could be built.

For more information about this $495,800 federally-funded project, including a video of the project engineer discussing the area, visit the project Web page at: www.wsdot.wa.gov/Projects/SR18/PeasleyCanyonSlide.  

For pictures of the original slides, visit our Flickr page at: www.flickr.com/photos/wsdot/sets/72157623086741799.  

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