A two-lane bypass around the Wolfe Point landslide area on the North Tongass Highway in Ketchikan opened last week for traffic to move in both directions.
The gravel-surface bypass will remain the only route around the slide “until the stabilization project and full roadway repairs are completed,” according to a March 26 announcement from the Ketchikan Emergency Operations Center.
The bypass was built as a temporary roadway for traffic after the March 20 slide of rocks, trees and debris blocked the highway and cut the town into two disconnected pieces.
No one was injured in the slide, which did not damage any homes.
“There will be occasional closures of limited times, mostly for maintenance to the bypass to counter the wear and tear of heavy traffic on the gravel surface,” the operations center reported.
The bypass will be closed intermittently during blasting operations for the Alaska Department of Transportation’s Wolfe Point slope stabilization project. That work began in March and is not expected to end until October.
A state contractor has been blasting and removing rock from the hillside above the highway, but no blasting occurred the morning of the landslide.
The Department of Transportation last week announced plans to build a “protective berm between the bypass and the landslide area to support the ongoing slope stabilization work.”
The slide forced the closure of Ketchikan schools for three days until the bypass was opened.
A water shuttle service to ferry people around the highway blockage shut down after six days when the bypass opened.
“Over the six days that we operated this shuttle, we moved 4,975 people with the help of AMAK and Lighthouse Excursions,” Allen Marine Tours stated in a social media post.
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