Clean up to be completed

MINERAL COUNTY – As of last week, commuters traveling westbound on Interstate 90 in the west end of Mineral County were still dealing with the effects of a rock slide that temporarily shut down traffic flow nearly four weeks ago.

According to officials with the Montana Department of Transportation, the work to remove the material and stabilize the rock face that slid off onto the highway should be complete this week and traffic flow should return to normal.

A section of Interstate 90 in the western part of Mineral County was closed on Feb. 7 by the Montana Department of Transportation after debris from a landslide littered the highway making travel too hazardous for westbound motorists.

According to MDT Missoula Maintenance Chief Steve Felix, the landslide occurred sometime early on the morning of Saturday Feb. 7, west of St. Regis. The landslide dumped approximately 250 cubic yards of material near the road and was most likely due to unseasonably warm temperatures in the area causing snow to melt and erode the hillside according to Felix. He said that he was not aware of any accidents, injuries or damage as a result of the slide.

“We did have some rocks come down,” Felix said. “That ended up forcing us to close the westbound lanes of I-90 for several hours while we set up a temporary detour. We did not have to close the entire interstate, just the westbound side. We were able to clean up the area and make it safe for travel but we noticed some increased activity in the afternoon. We had some concerns so we decided to close it down.”

A spokesperson from MDT said the debris had been cleared and a process known as rock-scaling was performed to try and prevent similar incidents. According to the MDT website, rock-scaling involves workers removing loose rock in a controlled manner that does not endanger public safety.