Rock slide prompts quick response from county

A rock slide on St. Joe Road had Shoshone County roads crews scrambling last week.

It was over a week ago that the slide was reported on a section on Federal Highway 50 (commonly referred to as St. Joe Road) near mile marker 37, in the southern portion of Shoshone County.

Jim Cason, Shoshone County Public Works Director, had his crews respond quickly in order to prevent anyone from being trapped in one of the more remote areas of the county.

“We started working on it right away and got one lane opened up,” Cason said.

According to Cason, rock slides like these aren’t uncommon, however, this particular one was much larger than any of the slides Cason had previously dealt with.

“When you get seepage of water, and drainage it can weaken the rocks,” Cason said. “So we see this happen all of the time, this one was just a lot bigger than most.”

Over 150 dump truck loads of debris were carried out of the area as crews worked vigorously to get the road opened in just three days as opposed to the initial week that Cason had anticipated.

It was imperative that crews worked quickly, as the road is heavily trafficked by logging trucks who come in and out of the area. That being said, Cason was thankful for the slide happening when it did, for a number of reasons.

Lower snowfall at the time meant fewer winter recreational enthusiasts, which also meant that road crews weren’t completely tied up clearing the roads.

“Fortunately there weren’t any recreators up there at the time,” Cason said. “With all of the manpower that we used, we would’ve had to pull guys away from plowing roads which would have probably interfered with other issues.”

No accidents or injuries were reported during the slide.