A rock slide on I-90 near St. Regis has been slowing down highway traffic since Saturday, February 7. Montana department of transportation Missoula District Construction Engineer Bob Vosen explains why this slide is taking so long to clear.

"It took us a while to complete the design and the remediation for the process, Vosen said. "We wanted to make sure that once we got up there, that we fixed the rock slide and completed all of the work necessary and don't have to go back in another year or so. We wanted to do the job once, and get it done."

Vosen says a slide at this particular site wasn’t expected, but that the public can expect the road to be fully open in the next few weeks.

"On completion, we'll actually have a rock fall containment fence at the bottom to stop any future rock that comes down from bounding out onto the interstate, they'll be captured in the ditch. Work started today. I believe crews are up there getting ground control set and getting the equipment in and out, we're anticipating probably 10 to 15 days of work, they'll be working on it Monday through Friday."

Vosen says travel for folks headed west won’t be getting easier any time soon, Idaho is reducing traffic on I-90 to just two lanes with severe restrictions on wide-loads.

 

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