Another mudslide closes down SR-166

Another small slide closed State Route 166 through Gorst early Sunday morning, but Washington State Department officials re-opened the road by Monday afternoon.

“We’re cleaning it up right now,” said Joyce Komac, maintenance supervisor for Port Orchard, on Monday morning, explaining that the latest slide was at Ross Point.

She said it was about four truckloads of “mostly some soupy mud and a little bit of grass” that filled the ditch and slid onto one lane.

Komac said she received the call about 11:45 p.m. Sunday night, and sent crews out to close the road. She said crews do not attempt to remove material from roadways at night due to safety concerns.

“The geotechs inspected the hillside and saw no movement, so I feel confident re-opening the road,” she said.

The road was then re-opened shortly before 1 p.m. on Monday.

Komac said the latest slide did not occur at the site of the emergency repairs completed last month.

“That area is holding up very well,” she said.

Heavy rains fell across Puget Sound last weekend — some areas reported 3.5 inches — and other problems in South Kitsap were reported by Kitsap County Public Works at 9 a.m. Monday:

n A slide was partially blocking a lane on Alaska Avenue, just south of Center.

n Phone books have clogged culverts in at least three areas in South Kitsap. An independent phone book producer distributed phonebooks by placing them in plastic bags and leaving them at the bottom of resident’s mailboxes.

In some areas these books have washed down ditches and blocked culverts. In others they have become a litter problem. County officials are seeing what can be done, if anything, about that type of delivery.

n Public Works officials reported that engineering and road crews were inspecting slide areas Monday morning, and that maintenance crews from the County’s Stormwater and Roads Divisions were spending that day clearing roadway debris, and keeping ditches, culverts, and storm drains working properly.

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