Landslide in the Historic Columbia River Highway near the Stark Street Bridge.
(Photo: Michael Johnson)
(Photo: Michael Johnson)
A big landslide has forced ODOT to close the Historic Columbia River Highway. The slide happened a few hours ago and it’s just before the Stark Street bridge as you head east. ODOT Region 1 spokesman Don Hamilton told us a few minutes ago that the road will be closed at least through Friday. Hamilton said ODOT crews will inspect the 80-100 foot high rock face in the morning to make sure it’s stable enough to cart the rocks away.
ODOT is estimated the slide is about 1,000 cubic yards of rock and will take about 100 truckloads to clean up.
This is a very popular bike route, especially with the recent re-opening of Larch Mountain Road.
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If you plan on riding on the highway in the next several days, be advised that you might have to detour. Thankfully there’s a pretty straightforward way to avoid the slide entirely. As you head out of Troutdale and cross the bridge over the Sandy River, just a mile or so down the road is SE Woodard Road. Take a left. Stay on Woodard for about two miles and it will dump you back onto the Historic Highway.
If we get any further updates from ODOT, we’ll post them here.
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Any injuries or did nature do its thing while no one was looking?
No injuries reported… But the reader who sent me the photo in the post rolled up on it about 10 minutes after it happened… And I also know that there was a large group ride from Rapha up there that morning too. Such a busy bike route we were lucky no one was hurt.
Lotta kinetic energy in a slide that heavy and all of ultimately dissipates as heat. Luckily the Pacific NW is much wetter than California is right now; probably would have got a small fire too.
Anyone know if this landslide is cleared and the road open to cyclists now?