Schools to remain closed Tuesday; bypass to have morning, evening openings

An Alaska Department of Transportation announcement said the more than 600 people crossed the bypass during the first open time period, which occurred from 6:30 a.m. and 8:30 a.m. on Monday.

The bypass also was open from 4:30 p.m. to 7:30 p.m. on Monday. More than 1,000 vehicles traveled the bypass during that time, according to DOT

A later DOT announcement stated that the single-lane bypass that SECON had built on Sunday would be open from 6:30 a.m. to 8:30 a.m. on Tuesday.

Construction then would begin to expand the bypass to a two-lane route.

“Traffic will be directed through a single lane between 6:30 and 8:30 AM, with the new detour expected to be ready for use from 6:00 to 7:30 PM, pending readiness and will close until Wednesday morning when 24/7 access is scheduled to start¯ states the Emergency Operations Center announcement issued at 6 p.m. Mnnday.

A DOT update later Monday evening stated: “We’ll update you Tuesday afternoon on the evening traffic plan. If crews can complete the shoofly construction in time, traffic control may shift to two-lane, 24/7 access. Regardless, traffic will move tomorrow night either single-lane or double.”

According to DOT, the agency's objective is to restore normal traffic flow by Wednesday morning on the two-lane bypass.

"By Wednesday, our target is to have two-lane, 24/7 access on the detour with no flaggers — though intermittent closures may still be needed as work continues," stated the DOT post.

The water shuttle service that has operated daily between Taquan Air and The Ketch Inn since Thursday afternoon when it was started by Allen Marine Tours was continued on Monday by Lighthouse Excursions and Allen Marine Tours. The water shuttle service is scheduled to continue on Tuesday, but then will stop operations, "so travelers are encouraged to plan accordingly for their journeys, according to the EOC.

Ketchikan School District schools were closed on Monday, and the district announced late Monday afternoon that schools would remain closed on Tuesday as "road conditions currently prevent safe travel for buses and staff, and we are unable to transport students and employees safely to school."

On Monday evening, the Ketchikan Gateway Borough Assembly ratified  a Declaration of Disaster that had been signed Thursday by Borough Mayor Rodney Dial and City of Ketchikan Mayor Bob Sivertsen.

The declaration allows the borough to be reimbursed from state and federal sources for certain expenses incurred because of the landslide. Borough Assistant Manager Cynna Gubatayao said during the special meeting that it's too early to know the total cost and how much aid potentially could be received.

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The slide occurred at about 10:55 a.m. Thursday about 330 feet north of the Mile 3 marker, within the area where DOT's Wolfe Point Slope Stability Improvements Project had started in early March. The area had seen smaller rockfalls in the past, including in February of 2022.

According to notices from SECON, the project contractor, blasting for the current project's work began on March 6. Subsequent blasting event notices were issued for six subsequent days of the month through Wednesday, March 19. There was no blasting notice issued for Thursday.

Although there was 1.81 inches of precipitation recorded at the Ketchikan International Airport on Wednesday and another 0.29 inches early Thursday morning, there was only 0.01 inches recorded in the 7-8 hours before Thursday's slide, according to National Weather Service data.

No one was injured in the landslide that covered both lanes of North Tongass Highway on Thursday.

Debris clean-up didn't start right away. Due to safety concerns, the debris-removal work began at about 6:30 a.m. Friday after a site assessment.

According to Friday evening's announcement from the EOC, "Crews made progress today in safely clearing debris from the Wolfe Point landslide, with Secon continuing removal efforts and the Alaska Department of Transportation & Public Facilities ... geotechnical team on-site assessing slope stability."

Stability continued to be a concern, as some very large boulders loomed high in the debris field.

"When the slope failed, several RV-sized boulders ended up perched on top of the debris pile," Travis Eckhoff, DOT geotechnical team engineer, said in the prepared EOC statement on Friday. "The debris pile is like a giant, rocky game of Jenga. Crews must strategically remove the material supporting these boulders to prevent them from falling onto workers or impacting adjacent power lines."

Over the course of the day Friday, crews cleared enough space on the water side of the highway to allow SECON equipment to maneuver in the slide area and reach the north side to start clearing work there, according to the EOC announcement.

Work has not occurred in the nighttime hours due to safety concerns. It resumed on Saturday morning, with the slope continuing to be unstable.

In an 11 a.m. Saturday update, the EOC indicated that it had been coordinating with the U.S. Postal Service and local pharmacies to use the water shuttle system to move items around the slide area to the north end, which remains without road access to the rest of the community.

"Efforts are underway to ensure that mail, prescriptions, and other critical supplies can be delivered despite the ongoing road closure," stated the 11 a.m. update.

On Saturday evening, the local EOC announcemed that N. Tongass Highway would remain closed for the rest of the weekend. The crews had been able to remove two of the four identified "hazard" rocks, but two remained and the landslide slope remained unstable.

It was announced that SECON would start building a single-lane bypass road on Sunday, with completion expected "early this week" for limited daytime travel around the slide area.

On Sunday morning, the Ketchikan School District announced that district schools would be closed and school activities canceled again on Monday.

Further cancellations would be decided on a "day-by-day" basis, Superintendent Michael Robbins told the Daily News in a Sunday evening interview.

 Robbins said that the School District schools would resume "once the road is determined to be safe by the Department of Transportation and the EOC."

He also said that, if school closures persist through Wednesday, the closure would extend to the regular School Board meeting.

 "Our past practice has always been when school is canceled, all of our activities are canceled," Robbins explained. "That would include a School Board meeting."

School Board Policy 0530 says that "if a school is temporarily closed for disciplinary or safety reasons, the facility must remain closed for all purposes until the school is reopened."

Robbins said that school closure decisions will be "based upon the safety of the road and determined by the Department of Transportation and the emergency committee."

Last week after the landslide occurred, Robbins told the Daily News that he had received a waiver from the state Department of Education and Early Development allowing the district to not make up the school days missed as a result of the emergency. The School District was granted a similar waiver during the emergency posed by the August landslide.

On Sunday, Robbins said that he thinks the waiver is valid so long as the borough and city are in a state of emergency.

 Robbins said that the School District will continue updating people "through the normal channels of communication that we've established," which could include the School District's Facebook page.

"We just want to thank all of the people who are working as hard as they can to clear the landslide, and their tireless work is very much appreciated," Robbins said.

The work on building the single-lane bypass began at about 6:30 a.m. on Sunday. By Sunday evening, DOT and the EOC announced that the bypass road would open for the  two, limited-hour periods on Monday.

Meanwhile, work continued on the landslide slope itself on Sunday. The last two of the four very-large rocks that had sat higher up in the slope were removed, according to the EOC, which added that crews might discover additional hazard blocks as the debris removal progressed.

Although the debris-removal work was expected to continue on Monday, DOT noted that the crews wouldn't be able to work at the site during the times that traffic was moving on the temporary bypass.

Before the break of dawn on Monday, many local residents and their vehicles already were on N. Tongass Highway on both sides of landslide area in anticipation of the 6:30-8:30 a.m. opening.

The range of vehicle types spanned from small hatchbacks to a water truck and semis trailering AML containers.

At 6:30 a.m. a pilot truck paced the northbound line through the new bypass. On the north end, passengers aboard a full Lighthouse Excursion vessel got underway at about 6:40 a.m. from The Ketch Inn dock for the first water shuttle service run of the day.

In the afternoon, vehicles lined up well before the 4:30 p.m. reopening of the bypass, with a significant south end line already snaking a considerable distance by 3:45 p.m.

Despite not working while public vehicles were transiting the area, the site crews made "steady progress" in clearing debris from the area.

According to an EOC announcement early Monday evening, the site crews had made "steady progress in clearing debris from the landslide area, but a newly discovered crack has shifted the response strategy. This area is now under close watch."

In general, DOT and the EOC continue to encourage limited travel by motorists.

"Motorists are urged to travel only if essential and to expect delays until the two-lane bypass is complete," according to the EOC announcement Monday. The community is thanked for its patience and cooperation as crews work diligently to restore normal traffic flow.

Neither the EOC nor DOT has published an estimate of when the main highway might reopen.

The EOC announcements regarding the landslide are available on the borough website at : borough.ketchikan.ak.us/1113/Wolfe- Point-Landslide.

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Daily News staff writers Scott Bowlen and Alex Abbeduto contributed to this report.