Rock Crusher Hill

From the Editor-in-Chief's Desk

By SCOT PEARSON

A few people have called wanting to know the location of Rock Crusher Hill. With the coverage we have given on the troubled spot on Highway 101, between Cosmopolis and Raymond, not everyone is familiar with the local tag of Rock Crusher Hill.

It has been said that the name was given from a rock crushing operation that still operates past the locked gate on the intersection of the Weyerhaeuser A Line road that dumps onto the 101 at that point.

Washington Department of Transportation calls the impacted area that crumbles annually as mile 72.6 of Highway 101. People who currently travel this road know the area as the location where the speed limit drops down to 25 mph through the construction zone. It is also the piece of the road that has gone from a one-lane alternating traffic, back to a free-flow of two-way traffic over a gravel patch.

So to be clear, when we talk about the current state of Highway 101 at Rock Crusher Hill, we are speaking about the small patch of road located at milepost 72.6 along Highway 101, located in Grays Harbor County between the cities of Cosmopolis and Raymond. Travelers can also identify this stretch of road by the often staged heavy equipment that is set along the A Line intersection, or the constant pile of gravel that is staged nearby for a quick fix when required. The area is also the only location between Cosmopolis and Raymond that has caution cones, barriers and reflectors on both sides of the slide zone as well as a street light illuminating the area.

I hope this is clear enough to allow people traveling along this road to be able to locate it and use caution as they travel. I fully understand that there are several areas along Highway 101 that are either currently under repair or have been recently patched due to the recent rainfall earlier in the year or are in just plain bad shape. People utilizing the road should be further aware that the road continues to be monitored by WSDOT and has been on a watch list for several years as they get all design, planning and schedules aligned to make a permanent repair to the road, which is now scheduled to start this summer.

I would like to thank those readers that identified that we may have not been specific enough in every news item concerning Rock Crusher Hill and will from this point on be more exact in relating the location as construction continues throughout the year. It shall be from this point on known as Rock Crusher Hill (HWY 101, mp 72.6).