ARLINGTON — A major route on the east side of Arlington is expected to be closed for the foreseeable future after a portion of the roadway began collapsing earlier this month.
Crews will shut down a section of Tveit Road just east of 92nd Avenue NE beginning at 7 a.m. this morning. Drivers who need to access Tveit Road should take Burn Road off 212th Street NE, a detour of up to six miles, Arlington spokeswoman Kristin Banfield said.
“It’s really frustrating for us,” she said. “We don’t want to have anyone inconvenienced.”
Officials have had their eyes on Tveit Road since December when flooding and heavy snows cracked an 80-foot-long fissure in the blacktop, she said. The roadway is carved into a hillside. Heavy rainfall the weekend of April 4 saturated the ground and soil began crumbling.
Geotechnical experts investigated the road and determined it’s unsafe, Banfield said. The city considered shutting down only one lane but decided against that because the crumbling roadway is on a blind curve, she said.
The city doesn’t know how long it will take to fix the problem. The fix won’t be cheap or fast. The road will either have to be buttressed by pilings or workers will have to carve out a chunk of hillside to rebuild it.
The fix is expected to cost about $600,000 — money the cash-strapped city doesn’t have readily available. The city has asked the Federal Emergency Management Agency for help.
The city last year annexed a portion of land that includes this section of road.
Debra Smith: 425-339-3197, dsmith@heraldnet.com.
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