There’s a big problem on Little Hanaford.
Since about Jan. 7, the roadway on Little Hanaford Road, near the intersection with Salzer Valley Road outside Centralia, has been restricted to one lane of traffic as a massive crack in the roadway dropped a portion of the pavement following recent flooding.
It started as a small divot, but has grown exponentially worrisome in size in recent weeks. As of Thursday, the crack was about 150 feet long and had produced a dip in the roadway at least a foot deep.
“It was a few cracks here and there at first, but it seems to be accelerating quite a bit,” said Erik Dahl, 84, a Centralia resident who lives just past the broken roadway.
Dahl invited The Chronicle out Thursday afternoon to take a gander at the split, framed on each side by county road signs and cones. He and his neighbors worry that they’ll be left stranded without a way out of their valley soon, as the crack continues to expand and begins eating away at the sole open lane.
Several dozen households and farms live out past the crack, Dahl said.
“This is a time problem,” he said. “It just can’t wait.”
Josh Metcalf, Lewis County Public Works director, said this stretch of Little Hanaford is one of many problem areas that require constant attention.
“Based on the settlement and the size of the lip, we decided to bring (the roadway) down to one lane until we could do something to address it,” he said.
The single lane of roadway remains safe to drive on, Metcalf said.
The problem persists, despite patching up the roadway every summer. But this year appears to be different.
The earth underneath the road is sliding out from the side that faces South Hanaford Creek. Large amounts of moisture and freeze thaw have likely prompted the slide to accelerate underneath, eating up and dipping the roadway, Metcalf said.
“We really need to get in there and look at what’s going on below it and probably think of a bigger solution in there,” he said.
It’s unclear if the roadway has enough momentum to give out before Metcalf and his team can get out there this summer to address the problem, he said, but it’s possible it could happen with the earth underneath continuing to get washed out.
If such a scenario were to play out, Metcalf said he and his team would mobilize a temporary solution to make sure people are able to pass the section of roadway, be that a prefab bridge or whatever the situation calls for.
“We’re watching it every day, and if we see something change in the conditions we may have to do something sooner than later,” he said.
Road erosion caused by natural forces remains a big challenge for Lewis County roads and the county’s public works team.
Back in August, Lewis County staff made emergency improvements to a section of Shorey Road after the Newaukum River and unusual winter weather eroded a portion of the bank. A permanent fix on that roadway is expected to cost $1.2 million.
As of Thursday, there were about a dozen roadways partially or fully closed, according to the county’s online roads restriction report. Two of those roadways — Toledo Salmon Creek Road in Toledo and Blair Road in Centralia — mentioned a slide as the cause.
