WSDOT Projects

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SR 542 - Nooksack - Photos

The finished product, looking east and up the Nooksack River towards Mt. Baker
Work at Warnick Bluff near Glacier was part of an emergency
project and was completed in December.  During the flooding in early
November, WSDOT was forced to temporarily shift Mount Baker
Highway (State Route 542) further from the river because it was 
eroding the bluff and compromising the stability of the roadway. 

Crews use a helicopter to deliver materials to the job site.
The work horse of this operation was a 44-foot long Boeing Vertol 107
helicopter with twin 50-foot blades. The helicopter lifted the 30-foot
long logs and 9,000-pound boulders onto the stream bank below the
unstable hillside. The roadway was too unstable to lower materials
down from it directly.

Crews use an excavator on the stream bank to adjust the logs and boulders.
First, two 9,000 pound boulders are placed with each 30-foot log.  An
excavator was used to put them in position at the base of the bluff. 

Workers attach a boulder to each end of the logs with a steel cable.
Then crews use steel cable to connect a boulder at each end of the
logs.  The logs and boulders have holes drilled through them for
running the cable through.

The logs are placed perpendicular to the river bank.
The completed log and boulder combinations are placed
perpendicular to the hillside and river. When the river rises the logs
and boulders will redirect the force of the river away from the hillside
and help deposit sediments near the bank.