NW Mudslide Season 2013-14

EVERETT, Wash. - With heavy rainfall expected over the next couple days, the Department of Natural Resources is sending out a warning about landslide risks.

DNR has posted a blog about landslide hazards with links to safety information.

BNSF saw a number of slides last year along the Everett/Seattle line. The slides left commuters needing to take buses and deal with delays.

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Workers have begun a $16 million, multiyear project to scour and strengthen six of the region’s slipperiest bluffs, after last winter’s rains caused the cancellation of 206 passenger trains.


The job site is a mile north of Picnic Point Park, near where there have been several mudslides. The nearest landmark is a wooden, beached World War II-era minesweeper.

Two scooper machines removed the soft dirt Thursday into a six-car train, while two others fill the gap with granite spalls. They’re using rocks 4 to 8 inches wide, which have been successful alongside the rails near Ballard, said Gus Melonas, spokesman for BNSF Railway.

Starting next week, an old wooden retaining wall between Mukilteo and Everett will be removed, then replaced by a reinforced concrete wall 10 feet high and 700 feet long.

The purpose is to improve reliability for Sound Transit’s Sounder commuter trains between Seattle and Everett, and for the Amtrak Cascades line to Vancouver, B.C.

Washington state took years to design its plan and secure the $16 million, drawn from federal high-speed-rail stimulus funds. Two work sites this year represent only a fraction of the slide-prone zone....

Besides the mud control, several other high-speed rail projects — including the recent restoration of historic King Street Station in Seattle — are scheduled to be done by 2017, with a total $800 million in federal stimulus aid. Many are bypass tracks, so passenger trains can glide past freight yards and save minutes.

Rainy slopes along Puget Sound canceled 40 passenger trains in 2005-06, which prompted frustration but could be dismissed as a freak event. Some years there were zero disruptions.

But the last three seasons saw 70, 41 and 206 lost trips, respectively...

Other factors play a role. Housing development has brought more runoff, and new four-story homes line the slope near Picnic Point.

Melonas said Matt Rose, the CEO of BNSF Railway, has blamed the problem partly on landowners whose improper or broken drainpipes wet the hillside. BNSF and the local governments are working with landowners to fix or change drainpipes, Melonas said.

Washington state has printed brochures with advice for residents, such as to avoid tossing yard waste over the edge, where it becomes fodder for a slide.

Since work began in mid-August, the hillside excavation is proceeding better than expected, because of sunny, dry days, BNSF workers said.

It’s dangerous work, because freight trains pass through sometimes, and more so because heavy machinery is pivoting on makeshift terraces and roads, even traveling downhill in reverse.

The job is being done only between 9 a.m. and 3 p.m., so as not to conflict with the Sounder schedule.

Though BNSF Railway waited for federal aid to pay for this work, the railroad has funded recent hill work in North Seattle, said Sounder operations manager Martin Young.

The railroad spent at least $6 million in the Blue Ridge, Carkeek Park and Golden Gardens areas, and $10 million more throughout Puget Sound for culverts, drainage trenches, slide-clearing operations, and other stability work, said Melonas.

In the Everett-Mukilteo area, it’s hard to predict how BNSF’s slide-control work will improve travel.

The next winter could be dry. Or there could be slides at other locations.

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CHamilton said:

Here we go again. No mudslides yet, but the warnings are up.

Heavy rain can mean landslide delays for commuters

EVERETT, Wash. - With heavy rainfall expected over the next couple days, the Department of Natural Resources is sending out a warning about landslide risks.

DNR has posted a blog about landslide hazards with links to safety information.

BNSF saw a number of slides last year along the Everett/Seattle line. The slides left commuters needing to take buses and deal with delays.

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Steve4031 said:

How is it in October? I'll be coming in on 7.

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The forecast from August has so far correctly predicted the Northwest would have a warm September....
But going into October, it now predicts a rainy start to fall, with above average chances for a wetter than average month, and equal chances for temperature...

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TACOMA, WASH. — Saturday's rain set records across Western Washington, from Olympia to Bellingham. And the National Weather Service says the rain isn't over yet.

Record rainfall of 1.71 inches fell was recorded at Seattle-Tacoma International Airport on Saturday. The weather service says that is more than double the old record of 0.83 of an inch set in 1948.

A record rainfall of 2.93 inches was set in Olympia, breaking the old record of 0.82 set in 1971.

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MUKILTEO, WASH - The Burlington Northern Santa Fe Railway is nearing completion of first two of six major projects designed to stabilize unstable slopes that stand over tracks. The tracks carry Sounder commuter trains, Amtrak passengers and move freight of all kinds between Seattle and Everett.

One notorious slide zone project just south of Mukilteo is wrapping up. A 200-foot-long slope is now covered in granite bounders designed to lock together. It took more than 100 cars to bring in the rock and take out mud, fallen trees and debris.

Five miles further to the north, a work train has pulled out what's left of an old wooden retaining wall.It's being replaced with a ten-foot-high concrete wall braced with piles hammered into the ground.

BNSF spokesman Gus Melonas, a veteran of the track department that had to deal with these kinds of hazards, says last winter was the fifth worst season for slides since the railroad began studying the slide problem 99 years ago in 1914, when this was known as the Great Northern Railroad....

Two of the projects, including the placement of a 708 foot long 10 foot high "catchment" wall, will go into South Everett and keep slide debris from covering the tracks.

The cost of these projects, plus increased ditching and drainage work comes to around $26 million, $16 million coming from the Federal Government from funds to increase passenger train reliability.

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The Davy Crockett said:

Here is an idea... use some cash to buy property above the cuts, instead of applying 'band-aids' to the wounds... :help:

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SEATTLE - The National Weather Service says a weekend storm has made for the wettest September on record in both Seattle and Olympia, Wash.

By 6 p.m. Monday the rainfall total at Olympia was 9.14 inches, breaking the old record of 7.59 set in September of 1978. The normal for the month is 1.71 in Olympia.

At Sea-Tac Airport, the monthly total by 6 p.m. Monday was 6.16 inches, more than the 5.95 inches recorded in September 1978. Normal for the month is 1.50 inches....

Meteorologist Dana Felton says the weekend storm was more like the storms the Northwest sees in late fall and early winter.

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CHamilton said:

Hold your breath, everybody.

Seattle's zany 48-hour forecast: Warm rains, chilly snows, icy sun

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jimhudson said:

(Old saying: If you don't like the Weather in Texas wait 2 Hours!)

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JayPea said:

I like the reference to "chilly snows". I don't know of any other kind of snow.

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EVERETT -- Keep your fingers crossed and knock on wood, but so far, Sounder and Amtrak train riders are getting a break this fall from trip cancellations caused by mudslides.
There have been no cancellations this autumn on the line that hugs the shoreline between Everett and Seattle, which saw record numbers of disruptions in recent years....
When the rains do come, two new hillside reinforcement projects are in place in two trouble spots along the tracks.

At the Mukilteo-Everett city line, crews have finished installing a steel-and-concrete catchment wall 10 feet high and 700 feet long, said Gus Melonas, a spokesman for BNSF in Seattle.

At the south end of Mukilteo, near the Pacific Queen shipwreck, hundreds of granite rocks have been brought in to form a barrier, Melonas said. The rocks hold back the soil but allow water to drain through, he said.

Work also is planned in four more spots in Everett and Mukilteo. Those projects are still being designed and all the work is scheduled to be done by early 2016, officials have said.

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