Rockslide closes upper Elochoman road

Wahkiakum County Commissioners last Wednesday closed the upper end of the Elochoman Valley Road temporarily because of danger from a rockslide at Milepost 10.3.

At this point, the County Road Department will install safety barriers, and then the road may re-open. Engineers will observe the slide and develop a long term solution to the problem.

"We will be monitoring the slide, particularly after intense rainfall," Public Works Director Pete Ringen said Friday. "Unless we see a dramatic change, we will add features at this location in the next couple of weeks to increase safety, then re-open one lane. A longer term response is yet to be determined."

A geo-technical engineer gave the slide a quick look last week and made an informal report to Ringen.

"He indicated the rock was basalt that had cooled more rapidly than the surrounding rock, and this is what caused it to be fractured," Ringen said. "He also felt we would be OK to re-open the road, provided some protections were in place.

"I believe that monitoring the slide for a while, after we get more typical precipitation patterns, may tell us quite a bit about how it will behave."