OLYMPIA – A new state report recommends speeding up work on hazardous and unstable slopes in the Snoqualmie Pass area following deadly rockslides and a recent lane closure that caused traffic backups.
The report was compiled by the Department of Transportation at the request of Gov. Christine Gregoire. The governor’s office and key legislators were just getting their copies Wednesday night, and most had no immediate comment.
A copy of the 121-page report obtained by The Associated Press said the agency plans to expedite work on three particularly hazardous sites in the Lake Keechelus area on I-90 east of the pass.
The three slopes otherwise wouldn’t get attention until after 2011 – or in the event of another disaster. The projects are among eight on the pass that are identified in the new report as having more than 350 points on the hazards scale, meaning the highest level of risk. The rest are on a waiting list.
The report also requested that Gregoire and the Legislature approve a $50 million bond program to pay for these and future projects. The three most urgent projects, near Milepost 57, will be eligible for some federal aid, but $7 million in state funds will be needed, the report said.
Two other high-risk sites are along westbound I-90 near Milepost 50, close to where a rockslide killed three women in September.
The report, a reassessment of unstable slope sites on the I-90 corridor across the Cascades, said the state has decided to adopt a Canadian method called “selective rock scaling.”
That involves peeling away unstable rock from cliff faces as part of the overall slope stabilization. The report said it will be used on certain high-hazard locations.
Since adopting the Unstable Slope Management System in 1995, experts have identified 2,700 problem spots that present a hazard to highways and motorists. Forty of those, according to the latest report, are on the I-90 corridor over Snoqualmie Pass.
In the past decade, risks at 100 of the sites have been reduced, including nine on the pass, at a total cost of about $130 million.
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