An aerial photo taken from about 2,000 feet elevation on Dec. 29 shows the massive landslide that on Dec. 12 destroyed three houses and buried a half-mile section of Oregon Highway 229 about 10 miles north of Siletz. (Photo by Eric Squires)By DANA TIMS/Lincoln Chronicle
State transportation officials have unveiled a new webpage providing information on a massive December landslide that destroyed a half-mile section of Oregon 229 between Siletz and Kernville.
The page includes updated information about the landslide, ongoing monitoring efforts, detour information and the challenges of rebuilding the highway.
“What we know for sure is that this isn’t going to be fixed any time soon,” Mindy McCartt, an Oregon Transportation Department spokeswoman, told the Lincoln Chronicle. “It’s crazy. The road isn’t just covered, it’s gone. It’s just mind blowing how much earth moved.”
As many as 400 vehicles a day used the highway prior to the Dec. 12 landslide, according to state traffic data. Now, drivers who used to need only about 20 minutes to travel from U.S. Highway 101 through Kernville south to Siletz must take a detour that more than triples that time.
An Oregon Department of Transportation map shows where Highway 229 is closed about 10 miles north of Siletz. (ODOT)The state’s new webpage incudes a map showing the detour and notifies drivers that crews have now installed detour signs along the designated alternate routes.
Although not heavily traveled, Highway 229 is an important link between the community of Siletz, the rural areas around it and Gleneden Beach and Lincoln City to the north. The slide occurred between mileposts 14 and 15, the mid-point between the two communities.
While geotechnical experts employed by both the state and a private consulting company have explored the periphery of the slide, McCartt said conditions remain too dangerous and unstable to place the sensitive monitoring equipment needed to indicate how much and where the slide may still be moving.
“You can clearly see the places where water is still shooting out,” she said. “It appears to be a very active situation.”
Other areas where large swaths of trees slid down the mountain overlooking the slide also show signs of continuing to move.
Looking ahead, McCartt said it’s clear that attempts to repair and reopen the road will be years long. Just removing the tremendous amount of soil that’s have sloughed off and into the Siletz River will be a monumental task all by itself, she said.
In the meantime, state crews, aided by Beaverton-based Cornforth Consultants, are exploring the possibility of building a temporary road around the so-called “toe” of the bottom of the slide.
It’s not yet clear that there’s enough room available to accomplish that task, but if there is, any short-term fix would involve a gravel road that limits the size and weight of vehicles that could use it.
“We know how inconvenient this slide is for the folks who live along the highway and rely on it to get their kids to school and other purposes,” McCartt said. “This wouldn’t be something commercial vehicles could access, for instance. It would really be for the people who need to get back and forth to work and similar necessities.”
If a temporary road does prove possible, work on it could begin as early as this summer, she said.
- Dana Tims is an Oregon freelance writer who contributes regularly to Lincoln Chronicle and can be reached at [email protected]
I appreciate that they’ve made this information available to the public, and I hope ODOT continues to be transparent as they work towards a solution in the coming months/years.
Isn’t it something, if this highway was somewhere close to the Portland metro area they would be on it as soon as the weather breaks. But instead, because it is in a rural county, oh well.
Where is all the money going that the DMV collects? Why did they not prevent this from happening in the first place? Other costal highways have had this happen and it gets immediate attention? I am ashamed to call this my home. DMV and ODOT have millions of dollars and it is not being spent on Oregon roads bridges or highways.
The State of Oregon needs to do an audit of ODOT and DMV.
Millions continue to be thrown at the I-5 bridge project which will only end up with a bottleneck in Portland.
Does anyone remember the problems with the bypass near Eddyville?
ODOT is a bottomless pit with no accountability. The governor and our elected officials what us to throw more money into that pit.
It’s time for an audit.
Remember, ODOT already misplaced/lost a billion dollars and nobody has been held accountable. They didn’t fire anyone. Now as I understand it, the reason why they can’t fast track this is because the slide is technically still moving even if its slow?
The people who are commenting here critical of ODOT clearly do not understand the incredible magnitude of this landslide or the fact that it is not anywhere near stable.
Rebuilding the highway would cost an incredible amount of money to benefit a small number of people, even though the closure is awfully awfully inconvenient for those folks. ODOT obviously is going to spend its limited funds where it produces benefit for the most people.
They should have had specialists evaluating the area out there in 2018-2019 when a giant slump in the hillside occurred. ODOT or Weyerhaeuser — one of them should be held liable for the lack of action. Many people are negatively effected by this. A highway leading to and from tribal land gets put on the back burner.