NEAH BAY — Contractors spent Sunday transporting equipment and staging it for the removal of 300 to 400 truckloads of mud that had blocked access to Neah Bay on state Highway 112.
Workers slugged away at the slide and gained one-way access to the town by late Saturday, but removing the rest of the mud, trees and rocks will take some time, said Joe Irwin, spokesman for the state Department of Transportation.
Flood watch
Clallam and Jefferson counties were still under a flood watch Sunday, but no warnings were issued for any of the monitored rivers by the National Weather Service.
The slide was first reported at about 7 p.m. Friday.
On Sunday, “crews from Brach and Brach are staging their equipment, but that will take quite some time so they probably will not start removing the slide until [today],” Irwin said.
Removal of all the debris could take into next week, Irwin said.
In order to gain the one-way access, state workers excavated from the east side of the slide while Makah tribal members used their equipment on the west side to clear the road at Rasmussen Creek, which was buried under some 3,000 to 4,000 cubic yards of mud, boulders and trees.
A mudslide south of Jefferson County near Hoodsport was cleared off this weekend.
All lanes of U.S. Highway 101 near Lake Cushman Road, or state Highway 119, in Mason County were cleared by 4:35 p.m. Saturday after a mudslide blocked both lanes at 11:35 a.m. Friday.
Highway 101 is the only road linking communities on the western shore of Hood Canal.
Crews were later able to clear one lane through the 100-yard-wide slide area on Friday.