Slide creates problems on Bucks Lake Road
A major landslide that caught the driver of a vehicle unaware Sunday, Dec. 8, is creating a construction headache for staff at Plumas County Public Works.
Director Bob Perreault was before the Plumas County Board of Supervisors explaining the recent incident just east of Slate Creek Road and what needs to be done. One of the boulders was 2 to 3 cubic yards in size, he said.
The steep rock slope at a point about 50 feet above Bucks Lake Road is what gave way following recent rains.
Public Works maintenance crews were brought out with heavy equipment to clear the site and open the road again.
Perreault took supervisors back to three years ago when a major slope stabilization project took place near the same location of the recent slide.
That project for slope stabilization and realignment cost more than $4 million, said John Mannle, assistant director of public works, following the meeting. Funding was from a federal grant for engineering, environmental studies and construction.
Perreault said that concrete barriers, also known as K-rails, would be ordered for the slide area should they be needed in that area.
Mannle said that the department is now reviewing the slope and considering options should additional work be necessary.
Options include a steel rock netting similar to what Caltrans uses in some areas including the Feather River Canyon, Mannle explained.
“Typically the only options are to either stabilize the slope or move away from it,” Mannle said. “Neither option is cheap.”
A topographic survey of the slope and the adjacent Bucks Lake Road is going to be done by the department, Mannle said. This assists in developing alternative solutions and costs.
If more construction is necessary to stabilize that slope, Perreault told supervisors that public works would be looking “at another seven figure job.”
During the supervisors meeting, Supervisor Lori Simpson asked Perreault why she wasn’t notified of the slide? She reminded Perreault that Bucks Lake Road is in her district. “Just remember that for the future,” she said.
Perreault assured her she would be included in future notifications.
