Board visits landslide repairs in north-central Idaho
During its annual tour in north-central Idaho (District 2), the transportation board visited Bear Ridge Grade on Idaho Highway 3 outside of Kendrick to view ongoing landslide repairs.
The land beneath the highway gave away in March 2017, causing the pavement to crack and the northbound lane to sink approximately three feet. Maintenance crews quickly built a detour around the affected area to allow two-way traffic to continue unhindered until a perm
anent solution could be designed and implemented.
Last fall, crews began construction of a soil nail wall—a grid of steel bars reinforced by a concrete retaining wall—to stabilize the slope by extending beyond the affected area of the slide.
“This project’s unique characteristics let us be creative in our approach to solving the problem." said Riley Bender, ITD D2 project manager for repairs. "Soil nail wall technology isn’t something we have been able to utilize very often in Idaho.”
The soil nail wall was completed in January, and crews will finish repairs by repaving the slide area and returning the highway back to its original alignment this summer.
As part of this same project, an additional 6.3 miles of the highway will be repaved from the top of Bear Ridge Grade toward Deary.
“By utilizing a drone survey and the expertise of our subcontractor, we were able to implement this tailor-made solution in a very ambitious time frame, which was a benefit to both the state and the traveling public,” Bender said.
Published 05-04-18