Mudslides Create A Fine Mess Dufort Road Exemplifies How The Big Melt Wreaks Havoc

Shifting roads, massive erosion and mudslides have become something of an annual event in both Bonner and Boundary counties.

This year, officials say the problem is as bad as they can remember it.

Mudslides swept away a home in Boundary County last month and as recently as a week ago closed U.S. Highway 95 near Bonners Ferry.

Dufort Road between Sagle and Priest River has been closed for three weeks, with an opening date still at least two weeks away.

But the problem may get worse before it gets better - the mountains are still blanketed in white.

“A lot of people say we’re not out of the woods yet,” said Leslie Marshall of the Bonner County road department. “Depending upon how it all melts, it could be ugly.

A combination of heavy snowpack, turbulent runoff and the area’s rich clay soil have created even more shifting in roads than usual this spring, Marshall said. The earth soaks up water like a sponge,and eventually super-saturated top layers have nowhere to go but down.

That’s what has happened at Dufort Road, an arterial hundreds of people normally use daily on their way to and from Priest River. The road has been choked by mudslides in some places, while in others torrents of runoff have eaten away at its shoulders and reduced it to a dangerous, winding path.

“It could be attributed to the fact that repair jobs there were done in years past, but nothing was done for a permanent fix,” Marshall said. “We’re probably right now in excess of $100,000 and we haven’t corrected the problem yet.”

Now, motorists who ordinarily made the trip to Priest River via Dufort must travel longer, either through Sandpoint on U.S. Highway 2, or using the Spirit Lake Road to bypass the closure. Marshall said the Spirit Lake Road also is in poor shape. It’s not going to slide, she said, but it’s full of potholes from spring breakup and isn’t intended for heavy traffic.

There’s another downside to the detour, said Diane Mercer, of the Priest River Chamber of Commerce. She said the Dufort Road closure has hurt business.

“If you divert somebody through the Spirit Lake cutoff, they’re going to hit three hardware stores and two (supermarkets) before they get to Priest River, so they aren’t going to come.”

Mercer is angry the county has spent so much money on what she says amount to “Band-Aid” efforts to fix Dufort. She would rather see money go to “find out what the real problem is.”

Bonner County schoolchildren are on spring break now, but come Monday, officials predict school buses will be forced to travel an extra two hours every day to pick up kids on Dufort Road.

Another concern has arisen with emergency services, for which a 10-minute trip has turned into a odyssey covering 45 miles. Roughly 300 people - a quarter of the West Pend Oreille Fire District’s residents - live on the other side of slides here.

If that isn’t enough, another road closure on Old Priest River Road has forced the local volunteer fire department to create a temporary access through private properties to reach families living there.

“Nothing’s happened yet, but I’m knocking on wood,” said fire official Les Kokanos, explaining that he’s made an arrangement with the volunteer fire department in Sagle to respond if they can.

“If it’s available, then Sagle said they would help me,” Kokanos said. “But if they don’t have enough manpower, we’re on our own.”

In Boundary County, U.S. 95 has been open for a week straight. But two roads - Highlands Flat Hill Road and Pine Island Road - remain closed due to mudslides and smaller slumps. Five families on Pine Island Road enter and leave the area on temporary access cut through a neighboring farmer’s land.

County engineer Matt Shipp said recent cold nights and cooler days have slowed the melting rate in the surrounding mountains. At least outwardly, the earth seems to be settling.

Or maybe not.

“I’m not saying it’s going to hold, because a lot of the old-timers here say we can expect high water,” Shipp said. “Some people say we’re through the worst of it, and some people say it’s still to come. We’re just gearing up to see what will happen.”