Road covered by slide reopened
OSO, Washington — The devastating landslide in Washington state that killed 43 people also rendered unusable a critical highway between two small cities.
In the 69 days after the landslide struck, 18 million gallons of mud were bulldozed aside — enough to open one lane of the two-lane Rt. 530 to traffic yesterday.
“Our mission was to reconnect communities who have already lost so much, and do it in a respectful manner,” state transportation official Lorena Eng said in a statement on Friday.
Authorities planned to station flagmen to direct traffic on the one-lane stretch through Oso, between Arlington and Darrington.
Traffic started flowing about noon yesterday after members of the community walked the route and observed a moment of silence.
The opening was marked by cheers in Darrington, which was holding its annual Darrington Day festival yesterday.
The work to reopen the route cost about $3.5 million, the state said. Tens of millions of dollars have been spent rescuing survivors and recovering bodies from the square mile of thick mud that shattered what was once a quiet riverside community.
Many residents in Oso had known a landslide was coming, but geologists said it would have been impossible to expect a slide as large and quickly moving as the one that struck on a Saturday morning in late March.
Officials have identified 42 bodies recovered from the mud; the body of a 44-year-old woman hasn’t been found.
After the landslide, authorities opened to regular traffic a gravel-strewn mountain road meant for utility workers. Now, the traffic can return to the usual route, although gravel and tiny pools of water now cover a 600foot-stretch that authorities said went “missing” because of the landslide. In total, 3 miles of highway had been closed since the slide.
The highway might not fully reopen until at least October. The state will spend $21 million in federal funds to raise the road to protect it from flooding.