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Update as of May 25 at 2:50 p.m.

ID-162 is expected to be fully opened to two lanes this evening. The precipitation last night washed away the shoulders but did not affect the integrity of the highway.

Crews will place material around the exposed guardrail to stabilize it and will add material to roadside ditches, which were eroded into steep drop-offs during the storm.

The area near the guardrail will be coned off until next week when repairs will be finished. Crews will continue to monitor the area.

Original Story (May 25 at 10 a.m.)

Crews are mobilizing to assess and fix damage to Idaho Highway 162 near Lawyer Creek (milepost 5.5) after heavy precipitation last night. At this time, the highway remains closed and there is no anticipated timeframe as to when it will reopen. Crews are working to open the road as soon as possible.

Heavy precipitation caused a tributary of Lawyer Creek to overflow and wash over the highway, depositing debris in both lanes and compromising the guardrail on a steep embankment. Although little debris remains on the highway, weight from traveling vehicles could cause the roadway further damage and make it unsafe for continued use.

Heavy rainfall is expected again tonight. ITD will post after-hours updates on 511, as well as their Facebook and Twitter accounts (@IdahoITD).

Even in the summer, severe weather events can wash debris onto roads; motorists are encouraged to be alert after heavy precipitation, especially while driving on routes along steep hills or rocky cliffs.

Thirty-eight years ago (May 18, 1980), Mount St. Helens erupted, spewing smoke and ash that traveled more than 300 miles before landing in the Lewiston area.

Rex Williams, who was stationed in Potlatch at the time, joined his fellow maintenance workers in an effort to clear the 1.5 inches of ash that fell on US-95, though they were not sure how to clear the roadway.

“The first day, we tried using a rubber blade to avoid creating sparks while plowing, but that didn’t work,” Williams said. “The ash got into the engine and caused it to fail within five miles. We were also kicking up a lot of dust.”

For the same reason, brooming was not an effective solution at first as it simply created a plume of grey that reduced visibility for drivers.

“Then we figured out that if we sprayed the ash with water and broomed it to the fog line, we could use spray it again and use a grader to blade it off the roadway,” Williams said. “We rented every water truck we could find from all over the Pacific Northwest.”

In the following days, workers donned masks to protect them from the abrasive ash, changed air filters in the trucks to prevent engine failure and picked up many motorists stranded along the highway after ash clogged their engines.

It would take weeks to clear ash from the highways in the Moscow-Pullman area, which Williams recalls as the region that saw the most ash in the state.

“We didn’t have handheld radios at the time, which meant our work zones had to be short so that everyone was in view of the flaggers,” Williams said. “You were lucky if you made it five miles a day.”

Historic photos around the time of the eruption will be added to ITD’s photo collection shortly. In the meantime, share your historic photos with #MountStHelens and #ITD.

Reconstruction of US-95 through Bonners Ferry will begin during the week of May 14 and is expected to improve safety.

Crews will work from 7 a.m. to 5:30 p.m., Monday through Friday. Some night work will be permitted. One lane in each direction will remain open during the day, but night work will require alternating, one-way traffic.

To learn more about this project, the public may attend a meeting on Thursday, May 10 at 1 p.m. at the Bonners Ferry Visitor Center. Project staff will be available to provide construction details.

This two-year project will reconstruct the highway and improve pedestrian facilities between Alderson Lane and the bridge over the Kootenai River. Construction between Madison Street and the bridge will end in early October, and Madison Street to Alderson Lane will be reconstructed in 2019.

The highway will be expanded to three lanes and will include wider shoulders that can be used as bike lanes and separated sidewalks on both sides. The aging signal at Alderson Lane will not be replaced by the state after widening the highway.

After construction, the highway will transition from four lanes to two lanes at the bottom of the South Hill, addressing safety concerns by allowing drivers to merge before the crosswalk and the Madison Street intersection at the top of the hill. Reconfiguration of lanes is intended to reduce speeding, and vehicles entering the highway from Ash Street will also be able to use new acceleration lanes.

Construction to extend improvements from Alderson Lane to Labrosse Hill Street could begin as early as 2020.

Throughout construction, the public may receive updates by visiting the project website, checking 511 or attending weekly meetings held every Thursday. Once a schedule is finalized, details about the weekly meetings will be posted to the website.