SALEM, Ore. (AP) — Efforts to fully assess a landslide blocking River Road South in Salem will have to wait.

The road is expected to remain closed between Owens Street SE and Minto Island Road SE, the entrance to Minto-Brown Island Park, for several days, according to city officials.

Officials say it’s not yet safe enough for teams to begin clearing debris that led to the closure or further assess the stability of the hillside. With snow and freezing temperatures this week, the road could remain closed for seven to 10 days, the Statesman Journal reported.

The city will prioritize clearing of detour routes in the area while the closure is in place.

An early estimate put the amount of material that slid down at about 150 cubic yards, which is blocking the shoulder, northbound lane and spilling into the southbound lane, according to Courtney Knox Busch, a City of Salem spokesperson.

No injuries were reported following the slide, which was first reported at about 2:30 a.m. Thursday. Croisan Creek Road S is the designated detour route.

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Workers from Multnomah County and independent geotechnical advisers are still investigating a landslide that has left a section of Northwest Thompson Road in the West Hills closed since Jan. 25.

The slide happened on a downhill portion of the road, and underground streams could complicate efforts to shore up the hillside, said Mike Pullen, a spokesman for the county.

“They haven’t decided on the repair yet,” Pullen said. “It would either be something that we could do relatively quickly, but it also might be something larger that requires permitting. They’re weighing the scale of the repair.”

Because crews discovered underground streams that contributed to the slide, the county might have to work with the Department of Environmental Quality to make sure the site is protected before shoring up the hillside, Pullen said.

If that is the case, the road could remain closed for several months, he added.

In the meantime, drivers can get around the area by using Northwest Cornell Road. Thompson Road is often used as a through route by drivers, he added.

“Sometimes we can also open one lane of traffic, but I’m not sure if that will be an option or not,” Pullen said.

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The Oregon Department of Transportation closed Oregon Route 47 this morning in both directions after a landslide near mile marker 50 and the town of Mist.

A geologist is inspecting the nearby terrain to see if workers need to stabilize the hillside, said Brad Wurfel, a spokesman for the agency.

“We’re waiting for her report,” he said.

Oregon Route 47 is a connector road that winds through the mountains and landslides are common this time of year, he added.

“What happened is not unusual by any means,” Wurfel said.

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The Oregon Department of Transportation is still fixing a slope on Oregon Route 99E after a heavy basalt rock slide last Wednesday closed the road to traffic in both directions south of Oregon City.

The department has opened the highway to traffic with two lanes southbound and one lane northbound during rush hours. But otherwise it’s keeping the road closed near the site at mile marker 13 so that workers can continue to remove material that could potentially slide, said Brad Wurfel, an ODOT spokesman.

“We wanted to get the road back open so far as we were able to,” Wurfel said. “We really need to get the scaling done, though. This is an area that’s been prone to slides for years.”

Work could be finished as early as tonight, but more likely will continue for at least another day, Wurfel said.

So far, crews have not told him of any pavement damaged at spots where the jagged rock slid onto the roadway, Wurfel said.

“If they had a major problem, we would most likely have heard about it by now,” he said.

ODOT monitors the area frequently, but as crews looked at the damage from the most recent slide, they found several nearby unstable areas that needed more work, he said.

The department was able to reopen the road with just one northbound lane closed off through the New Year’s holiday. The slide had completely shut down the road on Wednesday and Thursday.

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The Oregon Department of Transportation is working to shore up an unstable slope on Oregon Route 99E after a heavy basalt rock slide Wednesday closed the road to traffic in both directions south of Oregon City.

The highway will remain closed at least through today, as teams decide what course of action must be taken to stabilize the slope, said Brad Wurfel, an ODOT spokesman.

“They started to do the cleanup yesterday, but as they had geologists and crews checking that slope they found a bunch of other areas that they want to do scaling work on,” Wurfel said today. “It’s possible that we’ll have to take a great deal of material off of that section.”

In order to reopen the road while work is still under way, workers could install concrete barriers on the northbound lanes of the highway and split the southbound lanes to one lane each for northbound and southbound traffic, Wurfel said.

The unstable area, near mile marker 13, could take a while to clear up, he added.

The basalt rock is cracked in several places above the highway. Water is pooling on top of the slope and tree roots are spreading into the cracks, making it more unstable, he added.

“This is less than optimal,” Wurfel said.

Basalt tends to fall in big angular pieces, as well, which makes it dangerous for traffic.

“When it goes it won’t be a small flow – it moves in large chunks,” Wurfel said. “They’re going to take a real hard look at that entire section.”

It’s possible the roadway was also damaged by the chunks, which could call for some repaving. Weekend forecasts of cold weather could prevent that from happening for a while, he said.

“That’s hard to do with low temperatures,” Wurfel said.

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A rock slide shut down the southbound lane of traffic on Southwest Macadam Avenue near the Sellwood Bridge Thursday morning as workers from the Oregon Department of Transportation went out to clear the site and assess damage.

The slide didn’t cause a lot of debris to fall on the road, but the slope needs to be evaluated to ensure there’s not more unstable debris before the area is declared safe, said Brad Wurfel, an ODOT spokesman.

“We’ve got high stone walls by the roadway, and when you get a lot of wet weather, sometimes those rocks try to come down,” Wurfel said.

If more unstable debris is found, workers will remove it so that it doesn’t present a future hazard, which could mean the closed road lane won’t reopen until Friday morning, Wurfel added.

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A new approach to monitoring landslides could save local agencies time and money – and protect the public in the process, if a study at Oregon State University pans out.

Aerial scans of terrain are a good starting place for agencies to keep track of landslides and other dangerous road hazards – but those scans are expensive and impractical for continued monitoring on a month-by-month or quarter-by-quarter basis, said Michael Olsen, an assistant professor for OSU‘s School of Civil and Construction Engineering.

And that’s where land-based scans could be beneficial, he said.

Olsen is studying the combined use of aerial and land scans as a way to keep an eye on dangerous landslide sites and deal with problems proactively, rather than cleaning up problems after they occur, he said.

“Right now, we typically find out about landslides a day or two after they happen,” Olsen said. “But with portable units we can scan and process an area, then rescan it a few months later and determine how much slipping is going on.”

The study, funded by the Oregon Transportation Research and Education Consortium, will look at how land and aerial scans can be used together to improve monitoring.

For aerial work, the Oregon Department of Geology and Mineral Industries since 2007 has used a new three-dimensional technology called Light Detection and Ranging, or LIDAR, to scan hazard sites across the state.

So far, it has scanned about 20 percent of the state – in areas that include 90 percent of the population – while using about $9 million in funding.

But it’s not practical to scan an area more than once every few years because of high costs and time-consuming planning, Olsen said.

However, experts can use data from those aerial scans to pare down which sites to monitor, and then bring portable LIDAR units to those sites every few months to see if they are becoming increasingly unstable, Olsen said.

“One advantage is that you don’t need to collect all those ground-based scans at high resolution,” Olsen said. “You can compare the sites with low-resolution scans and then perform high-resolution scans if something has changed.”

The ground units can perform low-resolution scans of an area in a few minutes, whereas high-resolution scans can require 30 to 60 minutes and generate a huge amount of data that takes even longer to process, he added.

Also, there’s a significant scale difference between what is detected via a ground LIDAR scan and an airborne LIDAR scan, said Ian Madin, chief scientist with the geology department.

Ground-based LIDAR provides data at an extremely local scale, looking at areas that are perhaps 1,000 square feet. Airborne LIDAR looks at zones closer to 1,000 square miles, he said.

“The terrestrial data really drills down to the local scale,” Madin said. “But it’s not practical on a larger scale.”

Using the two types of units together seems like a natural fit – and so far, no agencies are doing that in this way, Olsen said.

“It’s a real time-saver,” he said.

Another advantage of using both systems is that airborne LIDAR has problems capturing data from sites around vertical cliffs, which are common along the coastline. Ground units can improve data collection in those areas and protect highways better, Olsen said.

“Airborne can cover more ground, but you have to plan it out months in advance and it’s not best for everything,” he said.

The Oregon Department of Transportation, which is part of OTREC, the group that funded the study, already has a scanner for this sort of field work. But it hasn’t been used much for data collection so far, Olsen added.

A part of his study will help work out methods to make the scanner easier to use so the agency can monitor sites more closely, he said.

“We’re looking at ways of optimizing field survey efforts so we can find ways to best collect data on site,” Olsen said. “It’s always easier when you’re there in the field. You can see changes happening.”

LIDAR technology is slowly coming down in price. Right now airborne units cost about $1 million, and land units cost between $100,000 and $200,000. Software costs from $10,000 to $20,000, he said.

But those prices could decrease significantly over the next decade, which would make it easier for agencies to purchase and use more of the scanners to protect the public and shore up sites before they become dangerous.

“Right now there’s just not enough data to do that everywhere,” Olsen said. “But we’re hoping we can use this eventually to monitor hot spots so we can do something quickly and proactively – before a landslide actually happens.”

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There are a lot more landslides in Portland and across Oregon than one can see with the naked eye.

And more than 200 of them are in Southeast Portland, according to an Oregon Department of Geology and Mineral Industries report due out later this week.

The report comes from airborne surveys that found 202 Southeast Portland sites where landslides have occurred in the past – and are more likely to occur in the future, said Ian Madin, chief scientist with the department.

The information was gathered by the geology department using three-dimensional landscape scans with Light Detection and Ranging, or LIDAR, technology.

Doug Morgan, a supervising engineer at the Portland Bureau of Development Services, said that LIDAR technology is a vast improvement over older topographic maps because it makes it easier to locate landslides.

His department is using the scans released by the geology department to determine if development proposals need to be investigated more thoroughly before properties are built.

“The data is more accurate and precise,” Morgan said.

The goal is to help cities, transportation planners and others better understand and manage possible threats to infrastructure and homes.

The most recent data covers the Bureau of Land Management Portland quadrangle, which includes a city section mostly east of the Willamette River.

“In that area alone there are quite a few landslide areas that appeared on LIDAR that had not appeared on anybody’s map,” Madin said.

Madin declined to give specifics about the exact locations of the sites until the agency officially releases the data later this week.

Overall, when looking at the entire city and not just that sector, there are probably hundreds if not thousands of additional sites that are not included, he added.

“If you looked at Portland city boundaries, there would be way more,” Madin said.

The report doesn’t include Northwest Portland or the nearby area off U.S. Route 30 on Newberry Road that was shut down because of a landslide this past weekend.

The report also doesn’t include the residential West Hills neighborhood, where several landslides have occurred in the past. In 2008, six homes in the West Hills near Terwilliger Boulevard were deemed uninhabitable after a landslide.

The geology department is working on data for the entire city, but collection and analysis of that data are in various stages, he said.

The Oregon Department of Transportation and the city of Portland have partnered with the agency and provided input on some of the LIDAR scans.

But the geology department so far has no money to compile the Portland information into a single document and map that covers city boundaries, Madin said.

“We’re in discussion with the city of Portland now,” he added.

Several city departments would like to see the geology department data assembled into a comprehensive map of city boundaries, Morgan added.

“Once you do the maps, the next step is to take them and predict more general zones of high landslide hazard so you can use that for planning,” Morgan said. “There is some talk between bureaus in the city over finding ways to pool money to get that done.”

Two years ago his department made a proposal for some money to do that, but it wasn’t approved. The new plan would combine funds from several departments, which would be approved by individual directors, he said.

The city is aware of several at-risk areas, and the Portland Bureau of Transportation checks them regularly. PBOT makes sure storm drains and other items are clear during heavy rain events like those of the past week, spokeswoman Cheryl Kuck said.

“The city lies on unstable materials, so we are vulnerable,” Kuck said. “A lot of these landslides result from underground springs that come up. We do what we can.”

More partnerships with federal, state and local agencies could help accelerate development of a comprehensive city map, which in turn could aid in planning, state geologist Vicki McConnell said.

“We’re hoping these partnerships will help us finish mapping the entire Portland-metro area within the next couple of years,” McConnell said in a news statement.

Last week, the geology department put out a landslide report for the Lake Oswego quadrangle that mapped about 440 unstable zones in parts of Clackamas, Multnomah and Washington counties.

And coastal maps using the technology show even more landslide areas, with perhaps 250,000 landslide sites in just the western part of the state, Madin said.

“Highways run through all of that,” Madin said of the area. “In the North Coast Range, the landscape in some places looks like it’s melting.”

In addition, the Oregon Department of Transportation recently signed a contract with the geology department to investigate U.S. Route 30 toward the Idaho border with the scanning technology. That study will create predictive maps of landslides and other hazards in that region, Madin said.

“Hopefully if ODOT likes that, they’ll want us to do more scans in the future,” Madin said.

ODOT officials on Monday did not respond to phone calls seeking comment.

The geology department has been scanning parts of the state since 2007. The work has been funded in part through the Legislature and the Oregon Watershed Enhancement Board, which provided $1.5 million for 2007-2009 and $500,000 for 2009-2011 for the sweeps.

“Through partnerships, though, we’ve pulled in over $9 million over the last four years to get more areas done,” Madin said.

So far, the agency has scanned about 20 percent of the state – in areas that include 90 percent of the population.

“It’s been a tremendous success,” he said. “Everybody gets much more than they put in because of the partnership models.”

Landslides make up just a small part of what LIDAR scans are actually used for. BLM mainly uses the information for forest management, to count and look at individual trees. Other agencies use it for flood mapping, transportation planning, shoreline erosion mapping or to look at building locations.

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If it’s spring or winter in Oregon, geologists expect that a landslide is on its way somewhere in the state.

In the past, aerial photographs taken of an area gave scientists some insight as to where landslides might occur in the future. Most potential landslide sites, however, remain obscured by Oregon’s thick forests. But by using a technology called Light Detection and Ranging, or LIDAR, researchers now can see through the trees to important geological histories.

LIDAR works similarly to radar, except instead of using electromagnetic waves to determine where an object is, it uses laser pulses to determine the distance to an object or surface. When researchers with the Oregon Department of Geology and Mineral Industries take their LIDAR system into an airplane, the lasers can penetrate through tree canopies. This gives researchers a more accurate picture of an area’s topography, according to James Roddey, earth sciences information officer with the state geology department.

“Once we do a flyby and gather all of the data, we create maps with all of the vegetation and buildings stripped away to get a bare earth image,” Roddey said. “In an area prone to landslides like Astoria or Portland, these maps can show a community what type of landslides they could be dealing with.”

LIDAR mapping would have been helpful in Oregon City in 2007, according to Andy Vessely, vice president of Landslide Technology. That year, several multimillion-dollar houses built as part of a luxury showcase called the Street of Dreams were victims of a slow-moving landslide. That type of slide, often undetected until it’s too late, is common in Oregon, according to Vessely.

“If LIDAR had been available then, Oregon City may have been able to identify the problem before they built the homes,” Vessely said. “These slow-moving landslides aren’t usually a risk to life, but they are a risk to property.”

Today, Oregon City has LIDAR landslide maps from the state geology department that it references frequently during land-use planning, according to Chris Dunlop, Geographic Information Systems coordinator with Oregon City. Besides knowing where potential landslides may occur, the maps have also given Dunlop a better idea of the area’s stream network.

The Oregon Lidar Consortium was created in 2007 to allow multiple cities, counties and other government agencies to pool resources to pay for LIDAR mapping around the state. Besides Oregon City, maps have been made of portions of Washington County, the city of Astoria and the city of Silverton. Geology department staffers also are in the process of remapping the entire Willamette Valley and portions of Eastern Oregon.

Having accurate maps, Roddey said, can help communities prevent expensive development mistakes. In Kelso, Wash., an entire subdivision was built on an ancient landslide. When the slide restarted, it took 100 homes down with it, Roddey said.

“If these maps are there, someone developing an area can plan accordingly to make it safer,” Roddey said. “And if the danger is too great, hopefully they will decide not to develop there. Kelso is an extreme example of why you should identify areas like this before you build.”

Another area where a LIDAR landslide map could be useful, Roddey said, is Portland, where landslides often occur in the residential West Hills neighborhood. In 2008, six homes near Terwilliger Boulevard were deemed uninhabitable after a home there slid down the hill during a landslide.

But with the cost of LIDAR mapping running between $400 and $600 per square mile, the city hasn’t yet been able to afford it, according to Kevin Martin, GIS analyst with the Portland Bureau of Planning and Sustainability. But it is nevertheless something the city plans to pursue as soon as money is available, Martin said.

LIDAR maps are available for purchase from the Oregon Department of Geology and Mineral Industries for $25, or $15 on CD. Developers and other interested parties can also contact Oregon cities and counties directly to see if LIDAR maps are available, Roddey said.

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