WATCH: Video of blast on US-95 shows crews making progress
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RIGGINS — Traffic has been able to consistently flow past the US-95 slide south of Riggins since July 27, but work has continued since then to reopen the route fully without threat of another slide.
The $3-million contract for long-term repairs was awarded to Scarsella Brothers, Inc. on Aug. 18 and includes blasting to remove unstable material and reinforcing the slope with bolts and fencing.
The first blast successfully removed 14,000 cubic yards of material—just as much rock as had previously fallen to the highway—on Aug. 25. Check out drone footage from the event in the video player above.
A follow-up blast last week removed leftover rock from the first blast, and another larger blast will follow soon to address the unstable slope adjacent to the work area.
Materials Engineer Janet Zarate has been leading the charge on the contract, which she expects to wind up in late October.
“Long days by both our teams and the contractors have helped us get ahead during repairs,” Zarate said. “I’ve been impressed by the speed and thoroughness of everyone on the job, though I suspect the motivation is that everyone is ready to go home.”
Stay tuned by visiting itd.idaho.gov/us95rigginsslide or following on Facebook and Twitter.