Springs shift Almota Road work

Springs found on the dirt hills of the Almota Road project last week slowed down the ahead-of-schedule road-expansion as heavy equipment works in mud, hauling and placing basalt rock to form the base of the widened road.

“The hill just starts weeping with all this water,” said Mark Storey, Public Works director. “Makes it hard to build.”

Giant bulldozers and scrapers were removing dirt, replacing it with shot rock – basalt rock blasted from a nearby quarry.

Because of the springs, M.A. DeAtley workers had to switch to track-hoes to bring in more rock versus scrapers, which would sink in the mud. Track hoes have tracks instead of wheels.

“This is something we expected to see in some places of the project,” said Storey.

Forecasted completion for the work, which is known as Almota Road Phase Four, remains for a target of the end of September.

ROAD OPENING

EXPECTED END

OF JUNE

Storey reported to county commissioners Monday that the road closure on the hill section of the Almota Four project – halfway to the top of Henning Hill to Stevick Road – will likely re-open at the end of June.

Closed since the start of March, the project's contract allows for four months' closure in a five-month period.

Author Bio

Garth Meyer, Former reporter

Garth Meyer is a former Whitman County Gazette reporter.

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