Highway 153 will be closed at milepost 24, about 9 miles north of Carlton, for three days beginning Monday (Aug. 7) to replace a culvert at Leecher Creek.
A detour onto the Twisp-Carlton Road will be in place through Wednesday (Aug. 9) while Washington State Department of Transportation (WSDOT) crews install a new culvert under the highway.
Leecher Creek, has flooded and damaged the road on a number of occasions since the 2014 Carlton Complex Fire, which burned through the area and left hillsides prone to flooding and mudslides.
Additional roadwork on Highway 153 will begin the following Monday (Aug. 14) to rehabilitate four bridges between Methow and Carlton. When necessary, traffic control will involve flaggers alternating vehicles through on lane on one of the four bridges, according to WSDOT.
Temporary traffic signals may be used if a lane must remain closed at night or over a weekend. Full closures of up to four hours, from 8 am.-noon, may be used if needed, but are not anticipated to be necessary, WSDOT said.
The rehabilitation is being done to repair deteriorating bridge columns under four bridges over the Methow River. The work is expected to be complete in April 2018. Three more bridges on Highway 153 will be rehabilitated in the future, WSDOT said.
On Highway 20 over the Loup Loup summit, work to repair numerous washouts may still require a 24-hour single traffic signal control at milepost 221, about six miles east of the summit, and occasional daytime flagging elsewhere into the third week of August.
