[Mikey]

I agree with Mtn Goat that “road regulations” could use a going over. It has been my experience (yes, I am an engineer and have a PE license but I do not design roads) that government street, road, highway regulations and design standards are politically influenced. In other words, the design is not completely based on good engineering design and construction practice. Once one of the U of W civil engineering graduates gave a talk about his experience working design and construction of I-90 from the floating bridge through Mercer Island. After this WSDOT civil engineer had finished working on the design phase, he was assigned as a WSDOT engineer supervising contractors building this I-90 section through Mercer Island. He said that the original I-90 design had more lanes through Mercer Island but the city of Mercer Island put political pressure resulting in fewer lanes, putting those lids over I-90, and installing special lanes for exit and entrance to Mercer Island. This WSDOT engineer said he repeatedly complained to himself about who was the idiot who did the design, referring to himself. He implied that having experience doing on-site highway construction is very important to a highway design engineer. He was and is a honest civil engineer. Another example is the Wash. State government repaired the Granite Lakes road after the earthquake (I think that is on Wash. Dept of Nat. Resources land). I asked the contractors doing this project why this road was being repaired when it was rarely used. I was told it was being repaired to use the Federal Govt disaster $ and provide jobs. This road is now a trail. Take a look at the logging roads on private timber lands. I think these private logging roads are built to specifications different from USFS specifications.

[Randito]

The same section of road has washed out a number of times previously. One time was in Feburary of 2006. The road was repaired by early April. https://cascadeclimbers.com/forum/topic/40135-middle-fork-snoqualmie-washout/ The current washout sounds more severe than the 2006 damage. It will be interesting to see how long it takes for the road to be repaired. Personally I find the changes (not just the paving) to the Middle fork in recent years to be most welcome. In the late 80's and early 90's the area was unattractive from the activities of gun enthusiasts. Nearly every turn out along the road upstream of the concrete bridge was a shooting gallery with shot up cars, TVs and various garbage used as targets. The sound of gun fire was ubiquitous. Visiting the lower valley now is far more enjoyable now that target shooting has been banned and actually enforced.

[MtnGoat]

[MtnGoat]

[MtnGoat]

[lopper]

The Middle Fk Snoqualmie: the gift that keeps on giving. Rugged peaks, big waters, poor trails, worse roads. For those who frequented the area in the 1970s, here is some nostalgia. This was 2 years before the ever-popular RR flatcar bridge at the Taylor/MFK confluence.

TaylorBridgeJan75

caption

[MtnGoat]

So much rain doesn't help!

[rossb]

[MtnGoat]

fix the existing culvert if it's damaged install new one for the new watercourse grade and gravel the stretch leave it gravel for a few years to see what else develops, if anything keep it simple, cheap, fast, and restore access. Not years/decades of meetings, comments, commissions, studying the studies, etc. 13 years of no fix, and counting for a mile of road here.

[Ski]

[MtnGoat]

The reality is also that the larger picture is a function of the goals and values applied in determining it. In this instance, it might involve simply leaving a short section as gravel following a repair.

[puzzlr]

This part of the road was deliberately NOT paved. It has a chip seal surface which is much easier to repair. The engineers knew this part was vulnerable and had a history of slumping. The recent creek diversion has accelerated the movement of the hillside, but there are obvious big slide scarps along the CCC trail that predate the paving. Also, a lot of core drilling was done in this area to learn about what's below and causing the perennial issues.

[Bernardo]

Well, that's good news!

[MtnGoat]

Good, that should make the repairs faster and cheaper

[Kim Brown]