Local News

HWY 20 UPDATE Tuesday, May 7

May 08, 2019

An emergency contractor has been named to rebuild the hillside under the eastbound lane of SR 20 between Loup Loup summit and Okanogan that washed out on Wednesday, May 1. WSDOT geotechnical engineers have designed a repair plan and Hurst Construction of East Wenatchee will begin mobilizing and could begin staging equipment as soon as this weekend.

For now, as the hillside under the westbound lane remains stable and single-lane alternating traffic will continue, as will oversize load restrictions with no vehicles wider than 12 feet being permitted. As the repair work proceeds, some full closures and a detour are likely to be necessary. An estimated 15-20,000 cubic yards of rocks and mud slid toward Loup Loup Creek hundreds of feet below the highway. Department geotechnical engineers determined ground water saturated the soils and caused the washout below the road seven miles east of Loup Loup Pass at milepost 222.4.

There is no estimate for how long the repairs will take. The initial hurdle to overcome is locating and transporting 2,000 dump truck loads of boulders, rock and gravel to rebuild the hillside.

The current slide area is about a mile further east from where a series of slides closed 16 miles of SR 20 in April, 2017, requiring almost four months to repair.