SR 530 to reopen this weekend through Oso slide area
May 29, 2014, 6:54 PM | Updated: May 30, 2014, 6:06 pm
Crews have finished clearing SR 530 after working around the clock for the last month to remove the debris from the Oso mudslide. (WSDOT photo)
(WSDOT photo)
The Washington State Department of Transportation plans to reopen a large portion of SR 530 between Arlington and Darrington at noon Saturday for the first time since the devastating Oso mudslide.
Much of the highway was covered by an estimated 90,000 cubic yards of mud and debris from the slide that killed 43.
Crews have worked around the clock since May 9 to clear the roadway. WSDOT spokesman Travis Phelps says it was a slow, methodical process and crews were extremely sensitive to what might still be in the debris.
“We weren’t really sure what to find under the slide material,” says WSDOT spokesman Travis Phelps. “And we did have about 600 feet of the road missing.”
Traffic in the area has been moving slowly during the past month over a temporary 2-mile bypass route built on a Seattle City Light access road that provided a critical link between Darrington and Arlington in north Snohomish County.
The reopened section of SR 530 will be a single lane in each direction, with traffic escorted by a pilot car, Phelps says.
“A good portion of the roadway will be gravel as well so it’s going to be a reduced speed limit that goes along with it so drivers shouldn’t be expecting to have two lanes going at freeway speed,” he says.
WSDOT will soon announce the winning bidder for a contract to build a new SR530 through the area. The new roadway will have to be elevated in parts because of the significant shift in the Stillaguamish River and surrounding area because of the slide. Phelps says the goal is to have the new roadway opened by early October.
