Wednesday, September 27, 2006 11:14 PM PDT

Embankment on Foresthill Road gives way -- again

By: Gus Thomson, Journal Staff Writer

Things have gone from bad to worse on a section of Foresthill Road that gave way during last spring's heavy rains.

The slide area experienced another failure over the weekend, Placer County Public Works Director Ken Grehm said Tuesday.

While the roadway -- the only paved surface between Foresthill and the outside world -- is considered safe enough for two-way traffic to continue using, the new failure below the road will mean changes in how the repair work will be tackled, Grehm said.

Grehm showed supervisors photos of the area where the embankment has failed again, noting that experts who have looked the slide over observed water at the bottom of the bank. They now feel that a natural spring runs under the road where the largest slide occurred and where the new problem has cropped up.

One of the photos showed a public works employee dipping a stick four feet into a hole in the bank created by the failure.

"It was pretty disturbing to see that," Supervisor Bruce Kranz said, after the meeting. "Now we're going to have to do more geological work and additional engineering."

While it's disappointing to see another slide at the site, it's good that the stability problems were discovered before the initial work had been completed, he added.

Teichert Construction of Sacramento has been working on slide repairs under a $2.45 million contract with the county. Repairs were expected to be completed by late spring when the bid was awarded.

Grehm said plans are now to open the area below the road "in chunks" and then add more fill to bolster its stability. Tests over the summer indicated rain soaking into the soil and poor soil conditions contributed to slope instability.

The repair site is just east of Drivers Flat Road. The county is asking the federal government to pay for costs of repairs, which were estimated to total just over $3 million. But that was before the new failure was discovered on the weekend.

"It's obvious that it will now cost more money," Supervisor Jim Holmes said.

Holmes praised the public works department for monitoring the site since the slide, with employees checking the road and temporary signs early in the mornings to ensure things were safe.

The Journal's Gus Thomson can be reached at gust@goldcountrymedia.com.