Tuesday, Dec. 4 after the storm subsided and the flood waters from Bear Creek near Woodinville began to recede, area 5 maintenance supervisor, Jim McBride and supervisor Jim Danninger were on scene surveying the flood damage to SR 522. The night before WSDOT crews closed the road for just under a mile stretch from State Route 202 to NE 195th Street due to water over the roadway.
At first light the two supervisors found that most of the road was safe to reopen to traffic but one eastbound lane had a section of the right shoulder missing that measured 60-feet long, 8-feet wide and 5-feet deep. The right lane would need to remain closed until emergency repairs could be completed.
Knowing that between 1,500-1,900 drivers per hour use this stretch of highway during the evening commute, the crews got to work quickly moving materials and equipment into place to complete the repairs before the heavy commute rush. Crew members worked hard all day filling in the large hole and shoring up the right eastbound lane.
“Occasionally we needed to flag traffic to get trucks full of rock at the site,” said Danninger. “We would temporarily stop traffic and back the truck up at a 90 degree angle. We did everything we could to keep as much of the road open as possible to commuters through out the day.”
Hard work paid off and Danniger’s crew reopened the eastbound lane temporarily to traffic at 4:50 p.m. avoiding the feared extensive back-ups on the eastbound route.
The crew continued repairs to the guardrail and shoulder during off-peak travel hours for the rest of the week. They completed the work on Friday morning laying a fresh batch of pavement on the right shoulder.
A big thank you to the crew that worked so hard to get the road back open to commuters;
Ernie Reynolds, James Christo, Tony Virello, Dave Gelsleichter, Bob Petersen, Keith Parkinson, Brad Smith, Bill Howson, Mike Howard, Domi Monillas, Manuel Garcia, Eric Reis, Dan Kerr, Harold Will, Domingo Avila, Kenneth (Mike) Pownall