Timber Road has reopened more than two years after it first closed due to a landslide on March 6, 2023.
In a press release issued Friday morning, Washington County Land Use and Transportation (LUT) said its contractor had completed paving, striping, and installation of guardrails and signs the previous day.
“The completion of the repair will reconnect the Timber community and reopen the important connection between OR 6 and US 26 for industry, recreation and travel,” the county’s roads department said.
Road crews may still be in the area to finish up work, the county added.
The only paved route linking Highway 6 and 26 between Banks and the Oregon Coast, Timber Road is a lifeline for the Timber community, as well as an important route for those who work or recreate in the area. Before the closure, Timber Road served as a major detour in case of road closures on Highway 6 and on Highway 26.
After county crews noted increased landslide movement under the road between Strassel Road and the Timber downtown area, causing cracks to form, the road was closed.
The entire northern Coast Range is a hotbed of active geological movement. Landslides in the region are common; so frequent, in fact, that the Oregon Department of Transportation has a sign on Highway 6 in Gales Creek just a few miles from the slide area that can be lit to warn motorists of possible landslides in the Highway 6 corridor.
In the 12 months leading up to the closure, three other landslides had occurred in nearly the exact same spot, small slides of dirt and debris from an upper hillside falling into the roadway. All were quickly cleared. The real problem, however, was a known issue: The ground beneath the roadway had been giving out for years.
Those who drive the road know the spot, the S curves between Timber and Glenwood, where the roadway became rough, the asphalt patched, repatched, and patched again.
In an email to the Banks Post in October 2023, Washington County Land Use and Transportation spokesperson Chris Lueneburg explained that what has held the road surface together before the landslide cracked it open is a method of repair called “blade patching.”
Lueneburg said the process involves laying hot mix asphalt concrete over deteriorated pavement and then compacting it, often with the blade of a motor grader, hence “blade patching.”
“That’s the method we used to repair smaller pavement displacement at the landslide site before March, when the landslide worsened,” he said.
According to documents commissioned by Washington County LUT and prepared by contractor Cornforth Consultants, the county estimated that asphalt thickness in the patched areas could be several feet or more thanks to the frequent patching jobs done in the past.
Leading up to the landslide
“[Washington County] has observed that landslide movement generally increases in the wet winter and spring seasons,” a document reviewing the site read.
The documents were obtained by the Banks Post from a public records request and in emails from county staff to the Banks Post.
When groundwater levels are higher and heavier rains fall, landslide activity increases.
Recent logging in the area cleared the tree canopy in the slide area as well, “allowing for an increase rate of infiltration,” the documents read.
Heavy precipitation in early 2023 likely contributed to the issue, and it all came to a head March 6.
The aftermath
The county hired a contractor to conduct a geotechnical analysis of the slide area and present potential solutions. County staff conducted meetings to review the results, and over the months between the closure and construction, looked at three different options to repair the site and reopen Timber Road.
The county said simply rerouting the road was not an option.
“We don’t have any right-of-way in the area outside of the road’s current path,” Lueneburg said. “Acquiring right-of-way and building a new roadway would be prohibitively expensive.”
Ultimately, the county chose the “Shear Key at Roadway and Embankment Reconstruction” repair option.
“We will be excavating the soft earth under the road and in the downhill embankment down to stable ground and replacing it with a stronger rockfill to improve stability,” said Lueneburg in an email to the Post in December 2023.
The Washington County Board of Commissioners voted August 6, 2024 to award the project to Banks-based Lyda Excavating, one of eight bidders on the project. Lyda’s bid came in at just under $4 million.
The project was funded through the County Road Fund, and was budgeted in the FY 2024-25 Annual Road Maintenance Work Program adopted by the board June 18, 2024.
The project was estimated by county engineers at costing between $4.2 and $5.15 million.
Construction began in September 2024; the county hoped to reopen the road in December 2024.
It didn’t happen.
In early December, the county said there would be a five-month delay in reopening the road.
“Our contractor has excavated the slope and is now filling it back in with stronger materials,” Washington County Land Use and Transportation spokesperson Chris Lueneburg said in an email to the Banks Post. “Filling the slope and embankment is taking longer than they estimated, and they are now expecting the project to be complete in May.”
Reached by email in December 2024, Lyda Excavating, Inc. owner Mike Lyda described the work as meticulous.
“We are moving along well with the project. It is a meticulous process and we are performing well,” he said.
In March, exactly two years after the road closed, the county said they were optimistic that work would largely be done by May.
“As we reach two years since increased landslide movement prompted us to close the road, we would like to thank the community for their patience and understanding. We know this project has been impactful to community members and those who travel on Timber Road for life, work and recreation,” Lueneburg said.
Chas Hundley is the editor of the Banks Post and sister news publications the Gales Creek Journal and the Salmonberry Magazine. He grew up in Gales Creek and has a cat.
