Mill Creek once again has washed out, however previous fixes to two other sections have held strong. Pacific County Public Works plans to fix the section once weather and restrictions permit.
A gravel bar has increased over years and redirected the Willapa River towards Mill Creek Rd washing out the road previously in two side by side sections next to the current wash out.
"It's funny because word has gotten around that we keep fixing it and it keeps failing," Tom Gradt of Pacific County Public works tells us."But, as you can see the other repairs held strong, just a new section next to them came down."
Public Works plans to clear out the fallen section and fill it in with geo-tubes as they have with the previous washouts. "We fill the geo-tubes with rocks and filler material and will place them to keep the bank from eroding any further," Gradt told us. "We plan to go further than the current washout to make sure this doesn't happen again."
Geo-tubes are a modern fix for a historical problem, land erodes over time. The previous fixes have suffered the test of time and have proven to be not just logical solutions, but dependable.
While surveying the damage with Gradt for this article he expressed to us he believes the washout shouldn't expand much more as its as its went into harder material under the road that will be less likely to further erode. Last summer Public Works repaved Mill Creek Rd including the section that has washed out.
Public works has also filed for a permit with the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife to clear out the gravel bar in the river that has caused the redirection of the river. The plan is to use an excavator to remove the gravel bar, dredging it out to allow the river to follow a path away from the road.
Gradt told us, "So far the preliminary word is we will probably get approval to dredge it out, but again that's preliminary and not for sure yet. It's too early to know with any certainty."
The soonest they would be able to dredge is next summer in between salmon runs limiting the overall impact to the valued natural resource to the area. Gradt explained to us they have to use special hydraulic fluid and equipment on the excavator to make sure they have very little environmental impact due to the fact they will be working within the river.
He stated, "It's a long process and there's a lot of pieces we have to have in order to do this right. So we really want to be careful, take our time and ensure we don't damage the river or area in anyway."
Once crews are able to get out and repair the wash out its predicted the repairs will only take about a week to complete. "Fortunately our crews have done this before as you can see, so they've gotten pretty good at it and it should go fairly quickly," Gradt stated.
The current washout took a telephone pole with it damaging a phone and power line. Both have been restored with an alternative hookup that has been run across the washout area.
The Herald appreciates Gradt taking the time to meet with us at the scene of the wash out and providing us a run down for this article.