Crews from the Washington State Department of Transportation on Wednesday plan to begin repairing a section of Highway 302 that has been closed since March 1 after a slow-moving landslide caused by heavy rains led to a portion of the roadway to settle.
Doug Adamson, a spokesman for the Washington State Department of Transportation, said WSDOT crews will be on-site Wednesday with multiple pieces of equipment to fix an 80-foot section of roadway that settled more than 6 inches, leading to a deep split in the highway.
Crews will grind down the area that has been damaged and fill it back up to make the roadway level again. The road could open within a matter of a day or days, Adamson said.
“They are really good at what they do,” he said of the crews, “but they have a heavy lift because of the extent of the damage.”
The work, originally scheduled for Tuesday, has been dependent on dry weather.
The roadway is open to local traffic only between milepost 1 in Mason County and milepost 7.5 in Pierce County. The highway is closed to all travelers at milepost 4.5. Drivers who use the highway between Highways 3 and 16 have been using a 22-mile detour via Highway 16 in Gorst.
“We understand how important that roadway is for people who go to work, medical appointments, jobs, freight and transit,” Adamson said. “We’re doing our best to get it reopened.”
Kimberly Rubenstein is the local news editor of the Kitsap Sun. She can be reached at kimberly.rubenstein@kitsapsun.com or 360-792-5263. Support coverage of local news by signing up today for a digital subscription.