Slide Photographs, Comparison Photographs, Construction Photographs, Chronology of Events, Slide Repair Plan
Slide occurred early morning on January 29, 1999 on Sandlake Road at mile post 10.5.
1/29/99 at 9 am:
Looking NE. Photo
Looking SW. Photo
Looking SW. Photo
Looking South. Photo
Looking NW. Photo
1/30/99 10 am:
Looking SE (intersection of Sandlake Rd and McPhillips Drive). Photo
Looking South (large signs are at the Sandlake/McPhillips intersection). Photo
Looking SW. Photo
Looking NE. Photo
2/3/99
On the beach looking South. Photo
On the beach looking North. The rock material in the foreground is from the recent slide to the right. The smooth slope in the distance with the long culvert is the site is a major slide repair done in 1990 about 500 ft North of the current slide. Photo
The photographs listed below offer a good comparison.
1/29/99 Morning of the slide around 9 am; looking south. Photo
1/30/99 Morning after the slide. The size of the slide more than doubled in size during a 2nd slide that occurred about 4 pm on the first day. Photo
9/30/99 After the completion of the repair project. Photograph is from the same angle as the above photographs. Shaping of the shear key limits where one can stand to get the same viewpoint. Photo
Heavy equipment moving dirt. Photo
Reconstructing the land. Photo
Reconstructing the land with Cape Lookout in the background. Photo
Working the road base. Photo
Laying the new road foundation. Photo
Gravel Sandlake Road base. Photo
Paving Sandlake Road. Photo
Sandlake Road paved and ready to stripe. Photo
January 29, 1999
The first major motion of the Sandlake Road slide was at approximately 6:20
am. The length of this initial slide was about 300
feet. The location of the slide was on Sandlake Road about a mile south of Tierra
del Mar (3 miles north of Pacific City). The much more major slide occurred at approximately 4:00
pm. The length of this subsequent slide was just over 600 feet long.
The County Board of Commissioners declared a State of Emergency at 5:15 pm.
February 1, 1999
News Release regarding danger potential to the public was sent out. Governor John Kitzhaber made a Disaster Declaration for
the slide.
February 4, 1999
ODOT and Federal Highway Administration officials with County
representatives to conduct a preliminary review of the site.
February 8, 1999 (week of)
ODOT drill crews plan to start exploratory drillings
in the area surrounding the slide for preliminary engineering design requirements.
February 18, 1999
Lead consulting engineer for the emergency detour route
(W&H Pacific) submitted a project timeline for detour route completion to ODOT
(subject to drilling results and other possible factors). Anticipated opening
of the emergency detour road is slated for mid-April 1999. The Governor's Emergency Declaration for the slide and
request for Emergency Relief funding has arrived at the Federal Highway Administration
(FHWA) in Washington D.C. for final review and approval. Regardless of FHWA
approval or not of the request (approval is expected), the Tillamook County Director of
Public Works is committed to getting the emergency detour road open on schedule
as discussed above.
February 22, 1999
Update regarding Federal Emergency Relief funding status: A new wrinkle. The FHWA "Emergency Relief" (ER) program funding allocation
has been entirely spent for the year. The Director of Public Works talked
with a representative in Senator Wyden's office about the Emergency Relief
funding allocation. He confirmed the allocated money was all spent. Congress
has to pass an authorization for additional funding to the program. This
has happened before and so far Congress has always come through, but there
are not guarantees. The Director of Public Works is still going to continue
with the emergency repairs at Tierra-Del-Mar. If we don't get ER funding,
this will be a $300,000 hit to the Road Department budget to get the detour
route open.
February 26, 1999
Update regarding status of consultant work on-site: Of the two drill rigs on-site, the ODOT rig completed their portion of
work and moved out. The private contractor drill rig crew is continuing
their work with two more remaining sites. Their drilling work should finish
3 March. The geology and design consultants (Landslide Technology and W&H
Pacific) have completed a base map of the site. Preliminary discussion of
horizontal and vertical emergency road alignment options based on drilling
results and other information will start next week. At this point the emergency
road detour design is still on schedule for final plans by the end of March. The Director of Public Works still anticipates an expedited emergency detour
road construction process with possible construction completion mid-April.
March 1, 1999
Update regarding detour design details and funding: Both the Director of Public Works and the senior representative from
the W&H Pacific asked that clarification be made on the anticipated emergency
detour road completion date. W&H Pacific is submitting weekly status reports
to the County on progress of drilling, design work, etc. Their working timeline
calls for finals plans of the emergency detour route at the end of March
with possible construction to begin mid-April. Provided there are no surprises
with drilling results, citizens should assume the consultant's schedule
until we can improve on it. Because of the emergency nature of the work,
the Director of Public Works believes that an expedited construction award
and execution process could lead to possible detour completion by mid to
late April. This optimum construction time window is consistent with above
posted updates.
A couple of details for those interested in more information:
March 15, 1999
Update regarding detour design status: The geotechnical and design consultants for the County
have completed analysis of drilling results and have a design option proposal
for the slide detour route. FHWA announced that they need to preview and
"approve" the design proposal if we want to get future possible funding
(reimbursement) for the detour construction after the funding authorization
finally does happen by Congress. The Director of Public Works will meet
with FHWA, ODOT and the consultants in Salem tomorrow (Tuesday). There are
no guarantees, but the design option approval by FHWA is anticipated. Development
of final design details and preparation of contractor plans and specifications
is planned to begin at "full speed" following this meeting. The detour design options considered are all variations
of utilization of the previously vacated roads (curves) at the Sandlake
T-intersection. Recall from previous news releases on the topic that any
road placement / construction will likely have some impacts on land above
and below the roadway. Selection of the appropriate detour design will minimize
these impacts, provide a stable road platform and provide the most feasible
construction alternative.
March 27, 1999
Aerial photo
of the slide site (taken ~March 1999).
March 31, 1999
Update regarding received verification of Federal Highway
Administration Emergency Relief project funding: The County received verification that Congress allocated money into the
Federal Highway Administraction Emergency Relief Fund. Thus our project
is now funded. The point of contact for this information was our FHWA contact
for this project in Salem. Determination of the amount of County local match
will be determined after the bid opening.
April 2, 1999
Pre-bid Conference on-site with ODOT pre-qualified contractors
April 7, 1999
ODOT opened four bids received for the project. They are currently
in the process of verifying the bid figures before announcing the accepted low
bidder. Details to be published as they become available.
April 13, 1999
Utility Coordination meeting on-site with representatives
from W&H Pacific, ODOT and the County.
April 14, 1999
Received confirmation that Wildish Standard was selected by
ODOT as the low bidder for the project.
April 19, 1999
Update regarding Pre-Construction Conference held in Pacific
City: Pre-Construction Conference held in Pacific City. Attendees includes
representatives from Wildish Standard, ODOT, W&H Pacific, affected utilities
and the County Road Department. One item noted during this meeting was that the public continues to wonder
all over the site putting themselves in possible danger (despite posted
road closed signs). This is especially the case on weekends. When the contractor
starts work (planned for 6 days a week), the spectator problem and safety
hazards will be even more pronounce. Please adhere to road closure signs
and stay out of the areas of the slide and future roadwork.
April 21, 1999
Update regarding delayed "Notice to Proceed"
date: April 19th was the anticipated contractor "Notice to
Proceed" date as outlined above. However, notice to proceed has not been
issued because we have not yet received permission from one of the three
property owners to work on their property. According to the regulations
associated with the federal funding for this project, the Contractor cannot
start work until the County has obtained an "Agreement for Possession of
Real Property" from all impacted property owners. The "Agreement for Possession of Real Property" is an
intermediate step in the right of way acquisition process. Even after the
agreements have been received, and the project started, the Oregon Department
of Transportation will continue negotiations with the property owners for
value of their land. We anticipate receiving a positive response from one of the property
owner’s corporate headquarters in Texas in the near future. The road construction
work will start shortly thereafter. The likely delay in the opening of the
roadway should only be for that time period of delay from April 19 until
the contractor starts.
May 6, 1999
Update regarding status of delayed "Notice to Proceed": As of 10am today there has been no change in the status reported above
on April 21, 1999. The third property owner is still considering the required
construction access document and has yet to return the signed document to
ODOT. ODOT Right of Way Section is regularly making contacts with the property
owner's corporate headquarters for updates. Feedback from most of the contacts
has been that approval for access will be returned soon. The County and
ODOT are standing by. We are receiving a lot of emails and phone calls from people asking:
When is the road opening date? The original scheduled project dates were: 4/19/99: ODOT issues "Notice to Proceed" (NTP) to contractor;
4/21/99: Anticipated actual start of contractor work;
5/26/99: Latest possible opening date for the detour road. To figure the anticipated detour road opening date, add the delayed number
of days of the issuance of NTP to the 5/26/99 date. The challenge is we
do not yet have the NTP date. ODOT is prepared to hand carry the third property owner signed access
documents thru their required process to get the NTP issued to the contractor
as soon as possible (this could be as short as a half day). The County will
be one of the first entities to be told of access document receipt and turnaround
of the NTP issuance. When reported to us, we will get this information out
to the public at first opportunity. When we get breaking news, the information will be posted to this Web
page and an "FYI email" will be sent out to all parties on the Slide Update
email list.
May 12, 1999
Update regarding receipt of written access authorization at
ODOT: This afternoon ODOT Right of Way Section received written access authorization
from the third and final owner impacted by and adjacent to the slide repair
project. ODOT is anticipated to issue the "Notice to Proceed" (NTP) to the
contractor, Wildish Standard, tomorrow. The resulting road opening date
is expected to be approximately the number of days delayed from 19 April
added on the new NTP date. The actual road opening date is negotiated between
ODOT and the contractor. When the NTP is actually issued and then a firm
completion date for the road opening is established, that information will
be published as soon as possible.
May 13, 1999
Update regarding ODOT issuing "Notice to Proceed": Public Works received acknowledgement from ODOT this morning that the
"Notice to Proceed" was issued to Wildish Standard yesterday afternoon. Various actions have already been initiated by the contractor to start equipment
mobilization to the slide site (i.e. oversize load permits, etc.). Various citizens have asked why was there a delay in the start of work.
For clarification, the following hopefully explains: Construction on federal aid projects are not allowed to proceed until
a right-of-entry onto the private property has been acquired for ALL
properties. The problem with this project was that one of the right-of-entry
documents had to be obtained from the Thousand Trails corporate office
in Texas. It was further delayed because the Thousand Trails corporate
office had to receive a release from their lending institution.
A public agency cannot force a property owner to grant us this type
of right-of-entry. It must be given voluntarily. A public agency does
have the right to purchase property through a condemnation process. However, to do so requires an extensive, constitutionally required "Due
Process" that would take several months.
May 14, 1999
Update regarding weekly status of project work: The on-site representative/inspector from W&H Pacific held an updated
Pre-Construction conference with the contractor and representatives from
several utilities and Public Works. Some highlights from the meeting:
May 21, 1999
Weekly status of project work. A construction coordination meeting
was held this morning. Attendees included: representatives from W&H Pacific
(design consultant), Wildish Standard (lead contractor), Landslide Technology
(geotechnical consultant), the County and other parties. Significant details
from the meeting include: Given the Memorial Day weekend and ODOT Specifications limitations regarding
work days on that weekend, the contractor indicated date for the public road
opening is projected for Wednesday, 23 May. Remember that with the original
Notice to Proceed date (that got delayed) the road was to be open prior to this
weekend. With this holiday weekend now in work window, this latest road opening
date reflects that inclusion. Recall the contractor will still be working 6
10 hour days a week (outside of that weekend).
On-site work is progressing as anticipated:
There are several construction roadways snaking through the project area. From the viewpoint of an outside, uninformed observer, these roadways might look useable for the public. This is an incorrect perception. These roadways are constructed to facilitate the contractor getting equipment through the work site. They are not engineered for public travel and are located in areas that are by no means safe for the public. The contractor is operating on these temporary roadways in accordance with ODOT rules and under their own liability insurance. During days the contractor is not on-site the construction roadways are on purpose NOT open to the public. The future public roadway on the North portion of the site will not follow the contractor's current temporary construction road in this area.
The contractor has reported a serious problem of the public coming on to the work site despite signs indicating the area/road is closed. The contractor indicated that one of their dump trucks almost backed into an older woman walking behind a moving truck. Only authorized personnel are allowed on-site. The public (unless escorted by authorized personnel) are NOT allowed on-site whether the contractor has crews working or not. At the request of the contractor the Tillamook County Sheriff's Office has been contacted to coordinate appropriate support. As a result of the continuing problem, the contractor is going to work with ODOT to try for a contract change order to pay for flaggers at all 3 site entry points to stop the illegal (and extremely dangerous) trespassing.
May 28, 1999
Weekly status of project work. Work on-site is progressing as
planned. Significant notes:
At times this last week there were citizens still wandering around in the project area. Even without equipment operating, the site is still hazardous. The public is encouraged to stay out of the project area until the roadway is open to the public. To satisfy the curiosity of those who must see what is happening on-site previous updates on this page include numerous photos of the progress of work. The below photos were taken this morning.
June 4, 1999
Weekly status of project work. A construction coordination meeting
was held this morning. Work on-site is progressing as expected. Significant
details from the meeting include:
June 11, 1999
Weekly status of project work. A construction coordination
meeting was held this morning. Work on-site is progressing as expected (see
below for more details). Significant details from the meeting include:
After the meeting, I escorted Kyle Odegard of the Headlight Herald around the work site for photos and newspaper article details.
June 15, 1999
Received telephone confirmation from the contractor, Wildish
Standard, that Sandlake Road/Ferry Street/McPhillips Drive in the area of the
slide will be open for public use at 10am on Saturday, 19 June 1999. As noted above, there will continue to be minor contractor activity still
occurring in the area after the opening. Be aware that the road will be a gravel surface until paving later this summer.
There will be appropriate signing notifying drivers of changed conditions on
the roads.
AS OUTLINED IN PREVIOUS UPDATES: when the Phase 2 shear key construction activity starts, there will be another road closure potentially for the duration of that work. The start of the time window for Phase 2 activity is tentatively set for August 1, 1999. However, if ground water levels drop to appropriate levels, the Phase 2 work (and thus another road closure for the final work) may take effect earlier than scheduled. At this time, an early start to the Phase 2 work can not be predicted. When, and if, this work starts before August 1, I anticipate getting out the word through all available media channels in a timely manner.
June 18, 1999
Weekly status of project work. A construction coordination
meeting was held this morning. Final Phase 1 work on-site is progressing as
expected. Road opening scheduled for 10am tomorrow (6/19/99). Read below about
a road reopening ribbon cutting ceremony set for 6/26/99. Significant details
from the meeting include:
For clarification, the road reopening occurring tomorrow represents the end of Phase 1 work on-site. Phase 2 work consists of the shear key construction. The shear key is a large rock embankment starting at base rock (at the toe of the original slide) going up to near the edge of the roadway behind the guard rail. A shear key is designed to provide support against ground movement and to maintain stability with continued beach erosion.
The default start time for the shear key work is 1 August. If ground water levels drop to adequate levels, shear key construction work could start sooner. The exact work window is not known at this time. As soon as a decision is made regarding the start date of the shear key construction, it will be updated to this Web site and appropriate media sources.
During the shear key construction work, there will be an intense amount of heavy truck and equipment activity to complete the shear key in a timely manner. The contractor has the option to shut down the road for a defined time window, if needed, to facilitate this work. Final decision of whether future temporary closure is needed or if they will just need to hire flaggers to stop public road use during entrance and exit of vehicles from the work site will be determined later.
Ribbon Cutting Ceremony...
Mike Lewis and Roger Tracey of the Pacific City Chamber of Commerce are organizing a ribbon cutting ceremony to "formally announce" the road reopening. This ceremony will be on-site and is set for 4:30pm on Saturday, June 26, 1999. Yes, the road will have already been open for a week. Various officials are invited to attend the ceremony. Invitees include (but are not limited to): the Governor, Congressional delegation members, the County Board of Commissioners, representatives from ODOT, the design consultant and the contractor. There will likely be temporary signs on-site before hand to direct people to the ceremony location. For details, Mike Lewis, President of the PC Chamber of Commerce, can be reached at 965-7600.
June 19, 1999
With little fanfare, the Sandlake Rd/McPhillips Drive/Ferry
Street intersection opens to public travel. The contractor, Wildish Standard, actually opened the road the evening of
Friday, June 18. Unfortunately this final moved up opening date/time was too
short of notice to make changes for news releases and the scheduled updating
of signs along Three Capes Scenic Loop.
June 28, 1999
This last Saturday afternoon a ribbon cutting ceremony was
conducted. Representatives from the County, the contractor (Wildish Standard),
project design consultant (W&H Pacific) and others joined the Pacific City Chamber
of Commerce in the public recognition ceremony formally announcing the road
reopening. Information regarding Phase 2 work: Landslide Technology continues to monitor
ground water levels. Recent monitoring results appear positive, but there have
been no firm details yet indicating an early start of Phase 2 shear key work
(prior to the default start date of 1 August). Details will be announced as
further information becomes available. Pavement of the new gravel road is planned for after the completion of Phase
2 work.
July 22, 1999
Construction Status meeting held. Attendees included representatives
from Wildish Standard, W&H Pacific, Landslide Technology and Tillamook County. Ground water levels in the area of the Sandlake Road slide have dropped to
levels that allow Phase 2 construction work to proceed. Recall that Phase 2
work consists of the shear key construction, other on-site work and final roadwork
to include paving. Significant topics from the meeting:
July 29, 1999
Construction Status meeting held. Attendees included representatives
from Wildish Standard, W&H Pacific, Landslide Technology and Tillamook County. Phase 2 construction work for the slide repair continues as anticipated. During this next week preliminary excavation of the toe trench (Shear Key area)
will continue. Actually placement of the stone embankment in the shear key is
set to begin next week. Subject to no unforeseen developments, construction activity should continue
as scheduled.
August 2, 1999
Due to the excessive traffic on Saturday on Sandlake Road,
the contractor, Wildish Standard, has indicated that they are shifting their
work hours from 6 10-hour days to 5 12-hour days (Monday-Friday). The impact
to the traveling public of this schedule change is two-fold:
This change in work hours should have no direct impact on project completion time window.
August 6, 1999
Construction Status meeting held. Work is progressing as anticipated. No noteworthy problems noted.
August 13, 1999
Construction Status meeting held. Overall work is progressing
as anticipated. The consultant (Landslide Technology) and contractor (Wildish
Standard) spent some time reviewing new information found on-site regarding
location of the slip plane in a portion of the shear key area. As a result the
pace of work slowed down today to work through a solution based on the new information. Work will resume at regular pace on Monday.
August 20, 1999
Construction Status meeting held. Attended by representatives
from the design consultant (W&H Pacific), geotechnical engineering firm (Landslide
Technology), contractor (Wildish Standard) and Tillamook County. Significant
topics discussed:
Timelines and dates for the below items are subject to optimum conditions including weather (little or no rain) and minimal or no ground movement.
August 27, 1999
Construction Status meeting held. Attended by representatives
from the design consultant (W&H Pacific), geotechnical engineering firm (Landslide
Technology), contractor (Wildish Standard) and Tillamook County. Significant
topics discussed:
September 2, 1999
Construction Status meeting held. Work is progressing as
anticipated with paving scheduled prior to end of September.
September 9, 1999
Construction Status meeting held. Attended by representatives
from the design consultant (W&H Pacific), geotechnical engineering firm (Landslide
Technology), contractor (Wildish Standard), SC Paving and Tillamook County.
Significant topics discussed:
Photo panorama taken today showing current activities on-site. You will note the stone embankment is finally filling in the bottom of the shear key area (the geotextile fabric can be seen coming out of the shear key to the left where the rock is being placed). On the right side of the photo, you can see lined up hauling trucks filled with stone embankment waiting to dump their loads. Compare this panorama to the one taken on 8/27/99 to get an appreciation for the amount of material placed during the past two weeks.
September 17, 1999
Construction status mtg held. Attendees
included representatives from Wildish Standard (contractor), W&H Pacific (design
consultant), Landslide Technology (geotechnical engineer) and Tillamook County.
Significant topics discussed:
Pending activities next week:
Activities scheduled for week of September 27:
Contractor work is slated to be complete by the end of the month with a final inspection involving ODOT, the County, W&H Pacific and the contractor.
September 24, 1999
Construction status mtg held. Attendees included representatives
from Wildish Standard (contractor), W&H Pacific (design consultant), Landslide
Technology (geotechnical engineer) and Tillamook County. Significant topics
discussed:
September 30, 1999
Meeting on-site to conduct final inspection for the project. Attendees included representatives from the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA),
Oregon Department of Transportation (ODOT), Wildish Standard (contractor), W&H
Pacific (design consultant), Landslide Technology (geotechnical consultant)
and Tillamook County. There were (and still are) a series of coordination and funding issues between
ODOT and the County as occurs with most projects of this nature. As a result
of this meeting, the contractor work was signed off as completed and approved. Significant changes in the area due to the repair project include: Due to the design requirements
and limitations, there is now an all-Stop intersection at Sandlake
Road/McPhillips Drive/Ferry Street. Into the immediate future the
stop signs at the intersection will be double flagged and posted
with night blinking lights to alert local travelers to the change
from previous conditions. There is a parking area to
the West of the intersection. This parking area has a berm along
the northern edge to keep vehicles out of potential hazard area
and where underground drainage collection systems are located. Parking
is essentially for a viewpoint from the area above the slide. Access
to the beach is about a 1/4 mile South of this location off McPhillips
Drive.
Tillamook County wishes to acknowledge the teamwork efforts by all participants in this project:
Slide Repair Plan View Drawing: The drawing is meant only to provide a general overview of the new road configuration for the general public. It is not meant for engineering or other purposes. The original drawing has been modified and added to for clarity. Image
This is an aerial photograph showing the slide damage. Photo
Plan view explanation of slide details over an aerial photograph. Image
County Vicinity Map with link to blowup map showing road access affected by the slide. Image
Last updated: Thursday, January 30, 2020 04:46:11 PM
