Slide along Willow Creek shuts down railroad line

Mar 14, 20190

--State DOT photo count

State Department of Transportation officials check out the slide area on the bank of Willow Creek which led to a shutdown of the rail line serving much of Whitman County. The bank slid out Jan. 23 along the line near Pampa Pond. The vertical face right next to the rail base made the site too precarious to support train traffic. Approximately 2,500 freight cars are transported on the railroad each year to supply farm chemicals and ship out grain loads.

Plans for repairs of a washout which has shut down the railroad service on the line which links the western part of the county with the rail network on the Snake River advanced last week with the opening of bids for a contractor to make repairs.

Rail service on the line, which connects with the Union Pacific line at Hooper, has been out since heavy rain Jan. 23 caused a bank to wash out along Willow Creek in the Pampa Pond area west of LaCrosse.

Bob Westby, state manager for the Palouse River & Coulee City system, reported last week Shamrock Construction of Spokane had the successful bid to ma...