Old US-95 slide near Lucile exposes new issues

District 2 is no stranger to cleaning up slides. At milepost 210 on US-95 (about six miles north of Lucile), they’ve been doing it since 1997.

The same area slid again in 1998, prompting a project that excavated 300,000 cubic yards of material — more than 400,000 tons! While initial repairs were underway, 375 feet of rockfall barrier fence was installed to protect the workers below. It consisted of long steel posts set into cylindrical concrete foundations three feet across.

Prior to one particular storm in late April of this year, that fence had stayed still despite the moving landscape.

“The fence was on previously stable material,” D2 Geologist Brian Bannan said. “Then all at once, four of them fell about 435 vertical feet to the roadside ditch.”

They didn’t land on the road (they thankfully created their own path and traveled down the side of the hill), but the district wasn’t going to wait for any more of these 4,000-pound cylinders to follow.

D2 Materials maintains an open contract with Triptych, a high-scaling contractor specializing in working from ropes on high slopes.

“The contract allows us to respond quicker and be more cost effective in emergencies,” Bannan said.

Within two weeks, Triptych workers were able to remove the remaining cylinders.

Published 06-14-19