If nothing is done, a portion of U.S. Highway 101 about six miles south of Forks will have to shut down.
John Hart, a state Department of Transportation project manager, has no doubt about it.
“We live in an unstable geological part of the world,” Hart said in an interview from Aberdeen.
The state Legislature’s biennium budget allocated $13 million for repairs to unstable slopes affecting state highways.
Another high-priority location is along U.S. Highway 101 in Jefferson County, in the Lilliwaup area, to which the Legislature appropriated $1.32 million for slope repairs.
In February 1999, a slide closed that portion of the roadway during the tourist-rich summer months.
For the last 10 years, Hart and a team of engineers and contractors have worked long hours to stabilize a portion of Highway 101 that runs adjacent to the Bogachiel River, near mile post 185, south of Forks.
