Highway 6 reopened to two-way traffic Friday after nearly a month of emergency repairs following a December landslide and sunken grade that closed one lane of the critical Tillamook-Portland corridor.
Flaggers will remain in the area to direct traffic, and crews will be back in the area Monday, Jan. 19 to install new guardrails, the Oregon Department of Transportation said in a release. Flagging will end after the guardrails have been installed.
After a landslide and sunken grade took out an entire lane near milepost 35, resulting in a closure on Dec. 19, 2025, crews have been working to repair the site to the tune of $1.5 million, ODOT estimated.
A new crack forming in the only open lane forced another closure on Jan. 4 for much of the day before the Wilson River Highway reopened to one lane of traffic again, this time on the highway shoulder.
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"We'd like to give a huge shout-out to Pihl Excavating, AAngels Traffic Control, Brix Paving and Columbia River Contracting for their hard work and dedication in rebuilding OR 6 and getting traffic back on the road," ODOT said.
The incident triggered the Washington County Board of Commissioners to declare a state of emergency on Jan. 6.
The county's emergency declaration highlighted "Safety Package F," an option in the safety study estimated to cost between $38 million and $49.4 million in 2023 dollars that would address 18 unstable slopes the state identified as a priority. Of those 18 slopes, 14 are located between mileposts 31 and 35.
