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Category 4 - Rural Highways: Highways
Honorable Mention
Flowery Trail Road
Between Chewelah and Usk, Washington
Flowery Trail Road, Washington Forest Highway 158, traverses the Selkirk Mountains connecting eastern and central Washington. This route is a crucial link between the two communities of Chewelah and Usk. This corridor was known in the 1800s as the “Chewelah Trail” to traders and missionaries, and in 1920s as a route for bootleggers to run liquor between Canada and the United States. This steep, windy, rural county-owned collector roadway provided access into remote areas for loggers, mining, smelting, and agriculture. The team faced challenges including substandard hairpin curves, a narrow roadway, access deficiencies, and limited sight distance, which created safety and reliability issues with the traveling public and commercial traffic since the trail was non-surfaced and received minimal maintenance. The team also faced environmental considerations including fish passage culverts, wetland mitigation creations, stream restorations, roadway obliterations, and temporary and permanent erosion control measures to protect the adjacent streams. The team successfully maintained community values, visual integrity, and environmentally sensitive wilderness while enhancing safety and improving mobility.
Designers: Robert Peccia and Associates, Helena, MT and FHWA Western Federal Lands Highway Division, Vancouver, WA
Contractors: Scarsella Brothers M.A., Deatley Delhur Industries TLJ, Construction Incorporated N.A., Degerstrom
Owner: Stevens County & Pend Oreille County, Washington
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