Oregon Hwy 22 heading to the coast

Speaking of closures and repair information, the Washington DOT loves to publicize their repair work. The main traffic alerts tend to be short like Oregon's, though with some indication of the delay estimates. But they post a lot of pictures on Flickr.

WSDOT flickr US12 landslides



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WSDOT travel alert is now saying 'the goal is to reopen US12 to through traffic by Christmas, weather dependent' (with one lane in the 2 problem spots).

Oregon tripcheck for ORE22:

"Road closure due to erosion. Contractor hired to repair road. Estimated completion data 12/26/15. Alternate routes in place."

I would say that there are many places on 101 and the Coast access highways, from the Willamette Valley to the Coast that are built on unstable ground, NOT bad design, just a fact of life in the region.
The biggest issues for these roads is that once they do have an issue, to make a "REAL FIX" would likely involve closure for an extended period of time like one to two months or more, so when do you close 101, 26, 6 or 18 etc for that long.

In the Seattle area, major railroad tracks run along the shore below slide prone bluffs. Standard operating procedure is to stop all passenger traffic (commuter, Amtrak) for a couple of days after a slide, even if it does not take that long to clear it.

Safety of cleanup crews and passengers is more important than keeping traffic flowing. Often geotechs need to assess the slide, to judge whether it is continuing (or repeating). If conditions are favorable for one slide, they are favorable for more - even at the same spot.

Well progress continues, just in time for more heavy rains. :S

Highway 101 now has one lane open with 24/7 flagers while they work on getting the other lane stabilized.

http://blogs.agu.org/landslideblog/2015/12/15/tillamook-1/

Item about a landslide in the Tillamook area affecting homes.

paulj wrote:
Yesterday when poking around for news on these closures I found estimates that they would reopen 101 on Monday, but obviously that was wrong. I've seen pictures of the damaged pavement.

For 22 the only pictures showed the puddle, with disclaimers that ODOT couldn't assess the cause and repairs until that went down.

In both cases remaining water is, or was, the cause for delays in repairs (and planning).

ODOT twitter estimates opening one lane on 101 about noon today

Same estimate in a news article (with an estimate of further closure on Wed when they do paving).

http://www.statesmanjournal.com/story/news/2015/12/15/highway-101-reopen-near-wheeler-oregon-coast/77354034/

That sucks! That looks like part of the road that they just recently replaved on 101! We just drove that section going to Nahalem Bay SP over Thanksgiving. It was pretty nice then.

The curve in the OP photo is typical of this section. Not much climbing, but lots of curves. Good for locals and cars, but probably not loved by big RVs.

just a note to people not familiar with 22. most traffic going from salem on 22 to the coast turn onto 18 where they merge near grand ronde . this route is not affected .

Yesterday when poking around for news on these closures I found estimates that they would reopen 101 on Monday, but obviously that was wrong. I've seen pictures of the damaged pavement.

For 22 the only pictures showed the puddle, with disclaimers that ODOT couldn't assess the cause and repairs until that went down.

In both cases remaining water is, or was, the cause for delays in repairs (and planning).

ODOT twitter estimates opening one lane on 101 about noon today

Same estimate in a news article (with an estimate of further closure on Wed when they do paving).

http://www.statesmanjournal.com/story/news/2015/12/15/highway-101-reopen-near-wheeler-oregon-coast/77354034/

http://www.co.tillamook.or.us/gov/pw/include/RoadStatusMap.htm

The above link in for Tillamook County Road Dept. They are trying to update the road conditions.