A 150-foot hill in Sumner is getting a makeover in hopes of preventing more mudslides from shutting down West Valley Highway.
Landslides are old news on this stretch of highway. Trees, mud and debris have been known to tumble off the slope and onto the road when heavy rains hit.
After last week’s storms, mud gushed from Bryan Stowe’s hilltop property and piled 3 feet high on the highway. It has continued to spill down even after crews twice cleaned up the muck.
“There is a time urgency because this is inconveniencing businesses,” city spokeswoman Carmen Palmer said.
Excavators were brought out Thursday to begin shoveling mounds of dirt from the hilltop and flattening it.
“We’re going to pull the top off so it can’t fall and harm anybody,” Stowe said.
Stowe runs Stowe Construction, which the state Department of Ecology fined $36,000 in 2009 for various stormwater run-off violations at a construction site in the city.
He owns about 70 acres on the bluff above West Valley Highway, 25 or so of which are zoned industrial. Stowe said he has no plans for the land but would like to put an office complex there to take advantage of the spectacular views.
During the storm, water began spewing out of the hill about 15 feet from the top and loosened the entire slope. A driver narrowly escaped the mudslide on the highway and no one was hurt.
The city has been hesitant to reopen the highway.
After top city officials met with Stowe this week, they agreed to his plan to excavate the hilltop and make it less steep.
City administrators said they will reopen West Valley Highway once an engineer deems it safe. That could be as soon as Saturday, Palmer said.
The total cost of the project is unknown but Stowe estimates it could run up to $25,000. That doesn’t include the bills Palmer says the city has accumulated in helping with last week’s mud cleanup.
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