LEWISTON – Crews are stabilizing the slope by Idaho Highway 3 near Kendrick to prevent future landslides like the one that cracked the roadway last spring. That work is underway and is expected to continue through January 2018.
Knife River Corporation, the contractor for this $3.3-million project, began construction of a soil nail wall on the Bear Ridge Grade in late October. The soil nail wall will secure the area by installing a grid of steel bars, reinforced by a concrete retaining wall, that extends beyond the affected area of the slide into stable material in the hillside.
There are no impacts to traffic at this time near the construction site at milepost 15.7 but drivers are advised to reduce their speed to 35 mph as work is being performed on both sides of the highway.
In conjunction with the soil nail wall, the contractor will also replace a broken culvert underneath the road. The road will be reduced to one lane at that time.
“The soil nail wall, in addition to the new culvert, will greatly reduce the likelihood of another landslide by securing the slope,” said Riley Bender, Idaho Transportation Department project manager for the repairs.
ID-3 repairs are expected to be finished by the end of next August, including repaving 6.4 miles of the highway from the top of Bear Ridge Grade to Texas Ridge Road.