Road fissure blocking travelers in Ferry County

Moving soil and crumbling asphalt have created a massive fissure that’s blocking travelers on the Inchelium Highway in Ferry County.

Cami Heath, who has family in the area, said a “soft spot” appeared in the roadway Friday afternoon and has steadily deteriorated. The pavement is now sunken and warped, with a fault line spanning both lanes of the highway that runs along the Columbia River and connects Inchelium to Kettle Falls.

Heath said the fissure is about 5 miles north of Inchelium and the nearest landmark is Hall Creek Cemetery. She said her brother lives on one side of the highway and her parents live on the other.

“They have made the best of the situation by using ATVs to travel a trail through the woods connecting the two homes,” which are about a half-mile apart, she said. They use nearby Hemming Road to take a car or truck into Inchelium, she said.

The highway cuts through the Colville Indian Reservation. A message left with the tribe’s road department wasn’t immediately returned Monday afternoon.

Last month, in response to extremely wet and potentially hazardous conditions, the tribe announced a temporary closure of most roads within the 1.4-million acre reservation, excluding state and county highways.