Chuckanut Drive rockslides cleared; road open

BELLINGHAM - Chuckanut Drive (State Route 11) will reopened to drivers by  Tuesday, Dec. 9, after more than a month of closures. The road has been closed near the Skagit-Whatcom county line since Nov. 7, when one of four separate slides blocked the road and left the hillside unstable. Crews have worked continuously to stabilize the hillside and reopen the road to drivers.

While both lanes are open to drivers, crews may need to close one lane at times to finish work on the hillside. Flaggers will alternate traffic through the work zone.

The largest rockslide happened Nov. 10 and dropped boulders the size of cars onto the highway. Crews have removed loose rock and debris from the hillside, installed 500 feet of rock bolts and sprayed on concrete to stabilize the slope. Crews also removed approximately 30 dump truck loads of rock from the road.

Residents and businesses on both sides of the slides have been forced to detour around the three-mile long closure for the last month.

View pictures and watch videos of the slides and cleanup work on our Flickr site:
*    Nov. 4: http://www.flickr.com/photos/wsdot/sets/72157608651530238/
*    Nov. 7: http://www.flickr.com/photos/wsdot/sets/72157608811311668/
*    Nov. 10: http://www.flickr.com/photos/wsdot/sets/72157608820308824/  
*    Nov. 19: http://www.flickr.com/photos/wsdot/sets/72157609480145533/

Fossils were exposed in the Nov. 10 slide and there are pictures of them on the Flickr site.

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