NACHES — Work beginning today could be completed Friday for a local detour around the landslide that closed Highway 410 near Naches.
But state Transportation Department officials say it’s too soon to say when they might reopen the highway. A 90-mile detour is available through Mount Rainier National Park and Cayuse Pass. With winter snow likely to close Chinook Pass soon, Highway 410 could be closed for the season.
Yakima County officials hope to divert water that has covered a local road, isolating parts of the Nile Valley.
Sunday’s slide buried more than a quarter mile of Highway 410 and forced the Naches River to flood about 25 homes. About 60 people were evacuated.
The earth continued shifting Monday at the site of the landslide.
“It’s still moving, and it may be moving for the next couple more days,” state Transportation Department spokeswoman Meagan McFadden said Monday.
Five houses were damaged by the slide, and about 25 more were damaged by flooding. Parts of the roadway were buried under up to 30 feet of rock and debris.
The Transportation Department said Monday it had set up local access for residents to return to grab belongings and secure their homes, but officials asked them to continue staying elsewhere for now.
It was unclear what caused the landslide, McFadden said, but she was quick to knock down a rumor that it was the result of digging at a nearby rock quarry.
“That’s not the case as far as we can see,” she said.
The ground that moved was extremely dry and gave way along a curved section of unstable slope — what’s known as a rotational landslide.
Once the earth stabilizes, workers will be able to get a better sense of how much damage was done, estimate how much it will cost to repair, and figure out where to put a new stretch of Highway 410, she said.
The department said its near-term goal will be to restore a road route along the Naches — possibly following Nile Loop Road — within the next three to five days, Jim Hall, director of the Yakima Valley Office of Emergency Management, told The Herald-Republic newspaper.
That can’t be done until the new river channel is rerouted away from Nile Loop Road, which is currently under as much as 3 feet of water.
It may take several more weeks to months to restore the highway.
A 47-mile section of Highway 410 remains closed between Mount Rainier National Park’s Lake Tipsoo and the junction with U.S. 12, five miles west of Naches. A 90-mile detour follows Highway 123 over Cayuse Pass.
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