Highway 6, down to one lane since early Wednesday morning after the westbound lane at milepost 35 dropped several inches is expected to be fully reopened by 2 p.m. Wednesday, an ODOT spokesperson said.
“It’s enough of a drop to be a hazard to drivers, so we need to keep that lane closed until we can at least make a temporary repair,” said ODOT spokesperson David House in an email to this newspaper.
House said ODOT’s current estimate to reopen the westbound lane was between 12 and 2 p.m. Wednesday.
“For now we’ll keep flagging traffic on the eastbound lane. Traffic isn’t busy – probably because of the severe weather – so there won’t be much of a delay during flagging,” he added.
The sunken grade was first noted by ODOT around 4:40 a.m. Wednesday. The Washington County Sheriff’s Office briefly said the entire highway was closed at 5:26 a.m., but said the road was open to one lane of traffic about 30 minutes later.
The area the sunken grade is in is riddled with past repair jobs, potholes, and other sunken grades.
An ODOT study released in 2023 found that 14 out of 18 priority unstable slopes along Highway 6 are located between mileposts 31 and 35.
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.
