Detour To Be Built Around Rock Slide

Crews will build a detour around a rock slide on U.S. Highway 95 to restore two-way traffic within two weeks, the Idaho Transportation Department said Tuesday.

Core samples also will be taken from the hillside to prevent future slides and determine the safest way to clear the rock slide that covered the highway last week about 15 miles north of Riggins.

Rocks have tumbled down the hillside on several other occasions during the past several months and also covered the highway during a large slide last November.

Last Thursday’s rock slide closed the highway, Idaho’s only north-south route, for two days and sent motorists on a 360-mile detour through Oregon and Washington. Crews cleared enough debris last Saturday to open one lane of traffic, but rocks still falling have slowed efforts to clear the rest of the 25,000 cubic yards of debris piled on the highway.

The 24-foot-wide detour to be built on the highway’s shoulder should allow two-way traffic to resume by Sept. 19, the transportation department said. xxxx