OSO — After a long, painstaking process, the work to clean up the site of the March 22 Oso mudslide is wrapping up.
Friday is the last day of the debris removal efforts, said Matt Zybas, the Snohomish County solid waste director who’s been helping coordinate the project. Heavy machinery and construction trailers will be moved off the site, and crews reassigned.
Roughly 200,000 cubic yards of material has been sifted and searched. Two-story piles of debris, created as rescuers worked in a grid, have been taken down. Trenches have been filled. A separate, state-run project to fix Highway 530 also is almost done.
Machines have been used to plant grass and wildflower seeds throughout the site, Zybas said. The grass is meant to hold the soil together and provide stability, and to ward off erosion as the rainy season approaches. The gentle slope of the land also should help with drainage.
At the site Thursday, the chalky green hydroseed coating gave the ground an otherworldly look. The flattened ground was soft to walk on, like a blanket had been draped over the land.
At the base of the knoll, where the rush of mud split into two directions, was a tub grinder being loaded with piles of tree scraps to be ground into fine mulch. Only a few large trunks remain on the field.
More than 95 percent of the dirt, rock, clay and sand from the slide has been redistributed elsewhere on the site, Zybas said. Hazardous materials and people’s personal belongings have been removed.
The total cost of debris removal is being calculated. The bills for contractors earlier were estimated at $12.5 million, Zybas said. The county expects the federal government to reimburse much of that.
County crews, contractors and the community have worked together.
“For everyone who’s been involved in this project, it’s been an honor,” he said.
Meanwhile, the construction on Highway 530 is expected to wrap up by the end of the month, state transportation spokesman Travis Phelps said.
“We’re working fast and furious,” he said.
In some places, the new two-lane highway is 20 feet higher than the previous road, Phelps said. Massive amounts of rock, plus newer, larger culverts, are meant to prevent flooded pavement this fall.
It’s been difficult to predict how the rain will affect the damaged landscape, and the changing path of the North Fork Stillaguamish River. Paving will continue for another couple of weeks, depending on the weather.
Rikki King: 425-339-3449; rking@heraldnet.com.
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