A mudslide early this morning has blocked the Burke-Gilman Trail in North Seattle near NE 130th. The slide has also blocked part of Riviera Pl, the road that runs parallel to the trail during this stretch.
Crews are working on the issue, but initial word is that the trail will not be cleared by the afternoon commute. We will update as soon as we get a timeline for clearing the closure. and the trail should be ready for the evening commute.
This slide is close to the site of several mudslides in December that kept the trail closed for more than a day. View that post for a potential detour route.
From King 5:
UPDATE 11 a.m. – Joelle Hammerstad from Seattle Parks says the detour from December is in place at the moment, but riders should be able to use Riviera Pl within a few hours. They also expect to get the trail open for the evening commute. The big issue is a 100-foot tree that must be removed.
The current detour route:
UPDATE 3:22 p.m. – The trail will be open shortly, and should be open for your evening commute. There will be a mid-day closure tomorrow, but that should not affect morning commuters.
Comments
3 responses to “Mudslide blocks Burke-Gilman in North Seattle – UPDATED”
Interesting. When I rode along the Burke-Gilman during a visit in December I noticed several places where it looked like slides might have recently occurred. I wondered if slides were periodic events there, since there are some quite steep slopes next to the trail.
The area is crazy with slides:
http://www.seattle.gov/DPD/Landslide/Study/Vol_2_Figures/figc5.pdf
It doesn’t help that their is no enforcement of tree-topping and debris dumping down the hill. Lots of rules. No enforcement. Slides a-plenty for the foreseeable future.
Slides are utterly inevitable given the geology. The Vashon Till and Esperance Sand soak up water, which then pools on the underlying Lawton Clay. This increased water table height greatly decreases the slope at which a hillside is stable. Also, humans do various things to exacerbate the situation, such as clearing vegetation or poorly managing the drainage.