PARKLAND, Wash. — The Washington Department of Transportation kicked off an initiative to clean up parts of State Route 512 on Monday. The effort could cause backups through Wednesday.
The left lanes of 512 will be closed while work is completed, leading to possible delays for drivers.
The cleanup comes after the Department of Ecology received multiple complaints about trash and debris on the side of the highway, leaving some to wonder why WSDOT didn't clean up the road sooner.
Cara Mitchell, a spokesperson for WSDOT, said the department had to come up with a plan to make sure workers could address that section of the highway safely.
“This is a challenging section of highway,” Mitchell explained. “State Route 512 has high vehicle speeds and a high speed limit through there, and it has a lot of congestion, and it’s not an area where, in the center median, that it’s been easy for…litter crews to be able to go in there and do their work.”
Steven Williams, section manager for Solid Waste for the Department of Ecology, said COVID restrictions made it harder to keep up with keeping roadways clean.
“We shut down our summer crews for two straight years,” Williams said. “Our adult crews, which usually have anywhere from three to five people on them, in all of 2020 and 2021, we ran two-person crews so we could maintain social distancing.”
Now that the restrictions have been lifted, Williams said his crews are fully staffed and have been making headway in the cleanup, and the work is being recognized.
“Instead of complaints, we’re actually getting some compliments now, which is nice when people notice the work of our crews,” Williams said.
Now, he’s calling on the community to help keep the highways clean.
“We’re never going to get ahead of this issue, strictly by cleanup, after the fact. We really do need prevention and for people to stop littering in the first place,” he said.
WSDOT said crews will be back out Tuesday and Wednesday to finish the cleanup. Backups are expected so the department is advising commuters to plan for that extra time or avoid the area while the crews work.