Shelter Cove Road now fully reopened
Shelter Cove Road is open now, with no detours at a location where three years ago, storm damage caused a huge landslide. The road at Mile Post 7.6, just below the Shelter Cove General Store, reopened to traffic on Sept. 25.
A ribbon-cutting was held a few days prior, to celebrate the completion of the road repair project.
“I am super, super happy with the work that has been done,” Humboldt County 2nd District Supervisor Estelle Fennell said. “It was a gigantic project and very complex.”
McCullough Construction Inc. did the work and Ghirardelli Associates was the engineering firm.
“They did a really, really fantastic job, developing and implementing a solution to the problem,” Fennell said of the engineering and construction firms. “The road is now safer than it ever has been, providing unrestricted access in this area for residents, visitors, and emergency services vehicles.”
Humboldt County Public Works Director Tom Mattson described the repair work as a massive project.
“This was a steep and unstable hillside that was repaired,” Mattson said. “It had to be built up (to the road) from the bottom, where they put in 40-foot deep pilings. Then a welded wire retaining wall, known as a Hilfiker wall, was built.”
He estimated that wall to be more than 100 feet tall.
The road failure occurred on January 3, 2017 and in November 2017, money from the Federal Highway Administration Emergency Relief Fund was earmarked for the repair work. The project was designed over the next several years and the construction work was done this year, starting in April.
Prior to construction Shelter Cove Road had been one-lane controlled traffic in this location and during construction there were two detours around the road failure, one for passenger vehicles and one for trucks, RVs and vehicles pulling trailers.
Shelter Cove Resort Improvement District No. 1 General Manager Justin Robbins said, “The Resort Improvement District would like to thank the Shelter Cove community, especially those who live along the detour routes for their patience during the last three years.”
This same sentiment was echoed by Mattson who said, “I was very happy with how patient the Shelter Cove community has been through this process and appreciate all the efforts from everyone involved.”
Robbins said, “With Shelter Cove Road now fully open to twoway traffic, residents and visitors alike now have safer and more efficient access to recreation, business and beach opportunities in the Cove.”
Federal Highway Administration Emergency Relief funds paid for 88.5% of the more than $3 million repair project, and the Humboldt County Road Fund contributed the remaining dollars.