Orting, WA—After record floods in December, Washington Rock Quarries answered the call to make and ship material to critical areas in the Puget Sound region.
Washington Rock’s team members worked long hours and even volunteered to come in on their holiday weekends to supply materials. Read on to learn about the flood relief and repairs our materials were sent to.
City of Orting Sandbags
Rockslinger hauled sand from King Creek Pit to Orting’s North Park. Volunteers assembled and passed out free sand bags to local residents who needed to shore up their property lines.
Washington Rock provided 90 tons of Utility Sand and 25 tons of Class 2 Sand from King Creek Pit.
SR167 Sandbags
King Creek Pit stayed open all night on December 14th so haulers could take 60 tons of 4″-8″ quarry spalls and over 700 tons of sand to The Bag Lady in Puyallup, WA.
The Bag Lady created hundreds of sandbags for flood control on SR167, including sandbags for the Green River and White River levee breaches.
SR162 Riverbank Reinforcement
Active Construction tapped Washington Rock to supply rock for the repair of a riverbank abutting SR162. Kapowsin Quarry came through with the needed quarry spalls and landscape rock.
Nearly 800 tons of quarried rock products were delivered to the project, including 2″–4″ quarry spalls, 4-man quarry rock, 1¼” Minus, and Heavy Loose Riprap.
SR410 Enumclaw to Crystal Mountain Road Repair
This stretch of highway is the main access to Crystal Mountain Resort in the winter, according to Komo 4 News coverage. Part of a lane and the embankment it rested on were wiped out by flooding on December 16th.
Active Construction completed repaired it by December 23rd using crushed rock from CalPortland and streambed boulders and streambed cobbles from Washington Rock’s King Creek Pit.
The photos above, taken by Active Construction’s Ryan Heathers, show the first steps in repairing SR410 (left) and the last steps (right). Washington Rock’s streambed boulders can be seen next to the water.
“The work took 37 hours start to finish with a great team, planning, and execution,” Ryan Heathers told Komo 4 News.
Haulers delivered over 200 tons of 3-man streambed boulders and over 60 tons of 4″ streambed cobbles to the project.
Eastbound I-90 Landslide Repair
Washington Rock team members gave up their Christmas holiday weekend and volunteered to work extra hours to supply the I-90 landslide repairs. Two eastbound lanes of I-90 were closed after the hillside beside them slid into the South Fork Snoqualmie River. This route provides access to Snoqualmie Pass, a popular skiing destination.
The Kapowsin Quarry crew processed extra quarry spalls and handpicked quarried 5-man boulders for the project. Loading such large pieces of rock required deft handling by Washington Rock’s skilled excavator operators.
In total, haulers delivered over 3,300 tons of 4″–8″ quarry spalls and 2,200 tons of 5-man quarry rock completing over 180 trips to North Bend.
Washington Rock Quarries is a family-owned business that produces rock, sand, and soil products at Kapowsin Quarry and King Creek Pit in Orting, Washington. We look for opportunities to give back to the community through our Giving Back Program.
Check out other articles about our community involvement: