Spring is here and summer is on the way, and with this time of year comes the season of road work as crews attempt to get projects done before the rain comes back in full force during the fall.
Lewis County Public Works crews began working on Bunker Creek Road on Monday and finished the first stage of the project this week. The Lewis County Board of Commissioners approved the temporary closure of King Road and Labree Road in the later half of the summer at their Tuesday business meeting on May 13. The commissioners also approved funding for a project to repair the Ceres Hill Road Bridge.
King Road and Labree Road will be closed for road work from July 1 to Oct. 30, although Wesley Anderson, senior engineer with Lewis County Public Works, said the actual closure time depends on how fast the work gets done and will likely be shorter.
Work on a portion of Bunker Creek Road that runs through Adna had the road closed down to a single lane this week with a pilot car guiding traffic through. The first stage of work is now wrapped up, and paving is scheduled for June 2 at the latest.
Repairs to the Ceres Hill Road bridge are still in the planning stage and no work schedule is available as of this week.
Bunker Creek Road
The work on Bunker Creek Road is to install a cement-treated base that is meant to provide more support and prevent potholes and other problems in the long term. The work starts at the Dieckman Road intersection and stretches almost to the road's intersection with the Willapa Hills Trail. The majority of Bunker Creek Road was updated with a cement-treated base after sections outside of Adna were washed out in the 2007 flood. The road stayed open to through traffic and will be down to one lane again for paving no later than June 2.
King Road
Work planned for King Road is a bridge scour project that will shore up the piers and supports of the small bridge that crosses Lake Creek. Bridge scour refers to the natural erosion of soil and material away from bridge foundations. The road will be closed between Lake Creek Road and Boistfort Road, but will be open to local access from both ends. Through traffic will be detoured around the project using Lake Creek Road and Boistfort Road.
The King Road bridge scour project is funded through the Washington Department of Transportation's local bridge program, which uses federal and state money to fund safety projects to repair or replace local bridges.
Labree Road
The Labree Road work is a fish passage project that will replace the current culvert with one that allows better fish passage in Berwick Creek. The current portion of road will be torn up and the culvert replaced before the road is rebuilt. The road will be closed where it crosses Berwick Creek south of the North Hamilton Road intersection. Drivers will be diverted through Hamilton Road and North Hamilton Road North. The road will be open to local access from either side but not beyond the closure point at the Berwick Creek culvert.
The project is funded through the Washington Department of Transportation's Promoting Resilient Operation for Transformative, Efficient, and Cost Saving Transportation program that disburses state and federal money to projects to make surface infrastructure more resilient to natural disasters and climate related issues.
Ceres Hill Road Bridge
While the official start date for work on Ceres Hill Road Bridge is not yet decided, the project recently received more than $4 million in federal funds from the Federal Highway Administration for repairs. According to Anderson, the work necessary to repair the bridge is substantial and will likely take two summers to complete. The necessary repairs include filling cracks in the bridge structure with filament followed by wrapping the bridge's box girders, which refers to the hollow concrete box that supports the bridge, in reinforced polymer sheets that are bonded to the concrete using epoxy.
Anderson said that excessive cracks in the bridge were first noticed during a bridge inspection in 2022. The bridge has operated with a load restriction of 15 tons ever since, which means heavy trucks and even some emergency vehicles cannot cross. Vehicles over the load restriction are instead forced to take long detours to avoid the bridge.
The newly announced funding will cover the entire project, according to Anderson, including paying for the last bit of planning and engineering as well as all the necessary construction costs.
