Water from the Tilton River splashes onto railroad tracks that had been washed out after the river changed course eroding its banks in February along state Route 7 in Morton.
A man uses his cell phone to take a video of the Tilton River as it eroded away at its banks washing out a pair of unused railroad tracks owned by the city of Tacoma on Friday morning along state Route 7 north of Morton.
As the Tilton River changed its course it began to erode the east bank washing out a pair of unused railroad tracks on Friday morning along state Route 7 in Morton.
A pair of unused train tracks hang off the side of the eroded east bank of the Tilton River along state Route 7 north of Morton on Friday.
The Tilton River just north of Morton has changed course and is eroding a substantial swath of ground directly to the west of state Route 7.
Three sets of railroad tracks run parallel to the highway between it and the river, and Lewis County Emergency Management Director Steve Mansfield said that as of Friday afternoon, the river had chewed out soil from underneath two of the tracks.
“Once it starts in on something like this, it can be difficult to stop without some sort of intervention,” he said.
Rivers regularly change course, Mansfield said, but the Hampton Lumber Mill sits across the highway from the river, prompting concerns about possible damage to the mill and highway.
Mansfield said crews will be carefully watching the river to see if it continues to push toward the highway.
If it does, crews from the Washington State Department of Transportation could begin mitigation measures to protect the highway, but Mansfield said the river must cut closer to the highway before they can begin operating in their right-of-way.
The tracks themselves sit on private property owned by the city of Tacoma, according to Lewis County property records.
Department of Transportation Spokesman Bart Treece said crews were watching the river, but only have a couple feet of right-of-way adjacent to the highway.
“Until it threatens our road, our right of way, there’s really nothing we can do because it’s not our property that’s being affected,” he said.
The county similarly does not have jurisdiction to undertake any preventative measures besides coordinating with the different agencies and businesses on precautionary steps and will notify land and homeowners if a threat from the river develops.
“You got a lot of people working on this,” he said.
Mansfield said nothing seemed to provoke the change in the river’s course and that the water level has continued to drop over the past few days.
The pressure of the river, though, is what is causing most of the damage.
“The river’s dropping. However, the flow of the river is continuing to pound against that bank where the tracks are,” he said.
If the elevated tracks were not running along the river, Mansfield said, the highway would likely be flooded by now.
Treece said once the waters recede, his department will begin looking at long-term solutions to protect that stretch of Highway 7.
