PORT ANGELES — If you think there are more trucks on the road, you’re not imagining it.
Work to remove the dirt from a washout that has closed the two-lane Hurricane Ridge Road about a half-mile north of Heart O’ the Hills campground has added about 140 truck trips per day on Port Angeles streets, said Port Angeles Public Works and Utilities Director Glenn Cutler.
Bruch & Bruch Construction Inc. trucks carrying the dirt from the slipout, which took out a 100-foot section of the road, to a company site west of the Elwha River have been making the trips since Monday.
For the first three days, Cutler said, the trucks with the Port Angeles company were getting to and from the slipout on Peabody and Race streets and on Park Avenue. But as of Thursday, they’ve been using First, Front, Lincoln and Race streets, he said.
The city requested that the company use the new route because those corridors can better accommodate additional truck traffic, Cutler said.
The trucks are expected to make the trips until sometime early next week, Olympic National Park staff said.
Then actual construction work in rebuilding the road will begin, they said.
The project that began last Friday is projected to take a total of six weeks to complete.
The washout of the road to the popular snow recreation area, Hurricane Ridge, 17 miles south of Port Angeles, has blocked all highway access past the slipout.
No detour was possible around the washout, park officials said.
The hillside gave way Jan. 18 but started to destabilize two days before because of water saturation.
The job is contracted at $1.4 million. Federal Highway Administration engineers estimate the total cost will exceed $2 million when the work is done.
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Reporter Tom Callis can be reached at 360-417-3532 or at tom.callis@peninsuladailynews.com.
