Pine Canyon Closure Extended by Weeks

US 2 through Pine Canyon will be closed for a significantly longer amount of time.

WSDOT Communications Manager Lauren Loebsack said the department originally thought crews would only have to clear out a small amount of material after Tuesday's rock slide. As is customary in these incidents, a geotech group took a look at the slide as well.

"They noticed a large boulder about 15x8x6 feet above where the netting is." explained Loebsack, "There are tension cracks behind that, which means that needs to be manually brought down. That's going to require a contract to accomplish that work, so we are looking at an extended closure of up to six weeks."

Washington State Patrol Trooper Jeremy Weber stated that travelers need to be patient, add some extra time to their commute, and use either McNeil Canyon Road to the north or Badger Mountain Road to the south as detours.

Weber said, "There has been reports of people trying to sneak in and going up the canyon. That's super dangerous. You can actually receive a misdemeanor for failure to obey a road closure. We will be enforcing that because we don't want to see anybody getting hurt."

Once WSDOT signs an emergency contract with a contractor the department will have a better idea of what the closure's schedule will look like. That should happen by next week.