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After rough winter, county Roads crews welcome spring

Crews in the King County Roads Services Division (RSD) are welcoming the arrival of spring this week, even as they gear up for a busy season repairing the damage caused by winter storms.

This past winter was surprisingly costly in damage to roads in unincorporated King County. Preliminary estimates indicate that repairs related to the 2005-2006 winter will total approximately $7.5 million. Some repairs have already been completed, but there is still a lot of work left to do.

“The impacts of this past winter have been cumulative,” said RSD Director Linda Dougherty. “In many cases, each storm built on damage from the previous ones to cause ongoing problems in the same area. In some parts of the county, we are still tallying up repairs and cost estimates.”

The region experienced a record 31 straight days of rain in December and January that saturated soils and caused significant mudslides. In King County, the most damaging was a series of slides just north of the Cedar River near Jones Road between Renton and Maple Valley.

In that case, about 7,000 cubic yards of mud slid from the hillside abutting Southeast 148th Street. The debris overtopped roads, overflowed a sediment pond, and flooded nearby homes. A section of Southeast 148th Street, a private road, is still closed by the slide.

There were also slides on South 272nd Way, Preston-Fall City Road, Simonds Road, West Snoqualmie Valley Road, North Bend Way, Peasley Canyon Road, and Dorre Don Way. In those situations, emergency repairs kept the roadways open, but planning is now underway for more permanent repairs. There are a few locations where the earth is still moving, which makes planning and timing the repairs even more difficult.

“We have to stay on top of these projects, or we could lose entire sections of the roadway as we did when Issaquah Creek undermined the Issaquah-Hobart Road in January,” said Dougherty. “We are constantly monitoring the condition of the pavement, the shoulders, and the adjacent landscape.”

Crews are also running inspections for sinkholes, collapsing culverts, large road cracks, washed out shoulders, and blocked drainage pipes – all of which could cause more serious damage if not repaired soon. One of the challenging things is that many of the important repairs that need to be done are not on the road surface.

“Most people don’t notice when a roadside shoulder starts sloughing off,” said Dougherty. “But, the shoulder is a vital part of the road, and if we don’t protect and reinforce it, we can lose the entire roadway.”

Currently, the Roads Division is planning major repairs in almost 40 locations – including 10 on Vashon Island. The work will include: stabilizing hillsides with rock; adding dirt and gravel to rebuild shoulders; filling and patching cracks in the roadway; and clearing out culverts and drainage pipes.

“This is a large scope of work, and will have to be spread out over the next 12 to 18 months,” said Dougherty. “We plan on applying for federal disaster aid and other grants, because our Roads Maintenance budget is already stretched so thinly.”

She said the storm repair work must also be programmed so it will not interfere with the long-term maintenance projects that were already scheduled to take place in 2006 and 2007. Whenever possible, projects will be combined to lessen disruptions for the public and maximize efficiency for the crews.
 

Updated:  March 20, 2006

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