Ketchikan landslide blocks roadway, closes schools
Hundreds are displaced as the highway remains closed.
ANCHORAGE, Alaska (KTUU) - No injuries were reported but hundreds of people were displaced Thursday after a large landslide buried a road just outside of Ketchikan, resulting in some businesses and homes being cut off from the other side of town.
In an update on Sunday, borough officials said Wolfe Point will receive a single-lane bypass route that opened Monday morning. The bypass opened at 6:30 a.m. and closed at 8:30 a.m. while they continued to work on clearing the debris.
The temporary route reopened at 4:30 p.m. Monday for residents to be able to get their stranded vehicles. The road closed again at 7:30 p.m.
The borough said that the time windows are set so that crews can continue to work on clearing the debris from the road.
The city of Ketchikan formally adopted the declaration of emergency disaster at the emergency assembly meeting. They also spoke about plans going forward. Starting on Tuesday, the temporary shoofly bypass will open for residents again starting at 6:30 a.m. before closing at 8:30 a.m.
During the meeting, they also noted that a new crack had been found in the ground, but did not pose an immediate threat.
“They assessed it and determined that they were still going to be able to remove debris,” Fire Captain for the South Tongass Volunteer Fire Department Mio Rhein said. “It did necessitate the building of that second lane because they felt it would be safer to keep everyone away from that debris.”
Crews will begin work on the second shoofly bypass starting tomorrow with the hope that construction will end on Wednesday. Once the second lane is open travelers will be able to access Ketchikan with unfettered access.
Officials say once the major pieces of debris have been cleared they will return to pre-slide construction activities, so residents should still watch out for intermittent road closures.
They said water shuttles would be available from 7 a.m. to 10 p.m.
Borough officials said in an update Friday morning that slide debris has begun to be moved after geotechnical engineers assessed the area to be safe enough to move in.
The City of Ketchikan says they are working with local marine and water taxi services to transport people as needed. They are also working to open emergency shelters for anyone not able to get home because of the slide.
Officials said in a release that the slide struck around 10:55 a.m. Thursday, shutting down both lanes of the North Tongass Highway, near an area called Wolfe Point.
Borough officials say the slide happened in an area where DOT and other contractors were working on a hill stabilization project.
The road was not able to reopen until the slide debris could be removed, and that was not able to happen until geotechnical engineers deemed the site safe enough to proceed, according to the Ketchikan Gateway Borough.
The city said the landslide extends 200 feet and is considered a major landslide for the area.
Residents are advised to be prepared for a lengthy closure.
The slide also forced the closure of schools Friday in the Ketchikan Gateway Borough School District, which posted on Facebook that most buses were caught on the north side of the landslide.
The slide struck less than a year after a devastating landslide buried multiple homes and left one dead in the small Southeast Alaska community last August amid heavy rains.
This is a developing story. Check back for further updates.
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