Community recalls day mudslide took out Highway 95

BONNERS FERRY - The flickering lights at Mike Woodward's home on Oct. 16, 1998, didn't prepare him for what followed - word that one million yards of mud had slid, taking out U.S. Highway 95 north of town and a portion of the Union Pacific rail-line.

"The soil in that draw up there was running like a lava flow," said Woodward, who at the time was the city administrator for Bonners Ferry. "It lasted about 1 1/2 days before it quit moving. Initially it was moving about the rate you would walk."

Ten years later, there's very little sign left to indicate the damage that was done and the chaos that followed. But folks around Bonners Ferry and those involved with the aftermath remember when the mud slide severed Boundary County's main north-south corridor.

"It (the mud) went across the District 2 Road, took out the railroad and trains couldn't run for 10 days," Woodward said.

Amazingly, no one was hurt, said retired Bonners Ferry Police Chief Dave Kramer, who is also the assistant emergency services coordinator for the county.

"We were very fortunate," Kramer said. "It could've been a lot worse."

The cause

Construction was under way for a four-lane Highway 95 when the mud slide occurred, said Scott Stokes, former District 1 engineer for Idaho Department of Transportation's five northern counties.

"They had been working in the area and were in some wet, very difficult soils," said Stokes, who is now deputy director for ITD in Boise.

Woodward, whose background is in engineering, understood heavy equipment workers with Kiewit Corp., got into a layer of clay that had water on it while working on the highway.

"So when they cut through it and opened it up, the water started moving on top of that layer of clay, moving the soil with it. It was like sliding on a piece of plastic," he said.

Impact

The slide left Highway 95 closed for three weeks.

Immediate concerns involved getting emergency vehicles north of Bonners Ferry and students to school, setting up detours and reopening the railroad.

"We wanted to open the road and the railroad wanted to open the railroad," Stokes said. "That was one of the most interesting events I've ever been involved with in my life just because it was such a critical thing for Boundary County."

Bob Graham, incident commander for Boundary County Emergency Services now and then, remembers returning from Boise that evening to find a lot of chaos and a lot of emergency workers.

"Most of the folks didn't realize the implications and complications of that particular slide," Graham said. "There were a lot of things we had to immediately address."

Officials from ITD, Kiewit and Union Pacific got together to discuss options.

"The railroad was extremely adamant about opening the rails," Graham said. "Union Pacific was at the bottom of the slide and I didn't feel it was safe to be working at the top of the slide until we had some assurances from our geo-technical engineers. The railroad was going to sue for (losing) $4 million a day for every day we held up traffic."

The slide also left a "gaping hole and the tracks were literally suspended," said Dan Herbeke, director of public affairs for Union Pacific for Idaho, Utah and Montana.

The railroad was shut down for nine days.

"It's certainly substantial, but nine days is pretty remarkable to get up and running (that quickly)," Herbeke said.

Truckers were faced with a 100-mile detour that took them to Troy, Mont., and down Bull Lake Road to Highway 200 and into Sandpoint.

Secondary roads became primary roads.

"That's (Highway 95) a main thoroughfare," said Lt. Brian Zimmerman with Idaho State Police in Idaho. Zimmerman worked for ISP in Bonners Ferry at the time.

"The loss of that hill had a huge impact on Boundary County, just transporting the kids back and forth to school," he said.

Repairing highway

Heavy equipment operators worked 24-7 to clean up the debris and reopen the highway.

"The basic foundation of U.S. 95 had caved into the valley, so what we ended up moving U.S. 95 closer into the hillside, excavating further into the hillside," Stoke said.

A buttress was built in the canyon to protect workers, he said.

"That facilitated us to go ahead so we could reopen the highway," Stokes said.