PORTLAND, Ore. -- The Portland Bureau of Transportation said it expects West Burnside to remain closed between Northwest Skyline Boulevard and Southwest Barnes Road through at least Friday afternoon.
"The soonest the roadway will be reopened is 4 p.m. on Friday, March 24, after crews work to repair and improve the road after a recent landslide," said Dylan Rivera, spokesman for the Portland Bureau of Transportation.
Rivera said the targeted reopening is weather dependent and the closure may last longer.
"The roadway might look clear, but the hillside next to the road could come crashing down at any minute at any hour, so that's why it remains closed," Rivera said last week.
Friday, crews closed NW Skyline Boulevard, starting at about 7am. Skyline will remain closed until Friday, at 6pm. Crews are using Skyline to move large equipment back and forth, to pave West Burnside in the area where the landslide happened. The road is heavily damaged.
Watch: Cleanup on West Burnside
Crews are working to repair two sinkholes, several potholes, and the base underneath part of the pavement.
"We don't want to have to come back and repair West Burnside again in two weeks,” said Suzanne Kahn, maintenance operations group manager for PBOT. “With a few more days, we can leave the road in condition that will last one more decade rather than a few more weeks."
The landslide struck a car on the morning of March 15. Three men in the car escaped without injuries.
Raw Sky8 video: Car trapped in Burnside landslide
Passenger Tyler Baker told KGW he was looking out the window and yelled 'Landslide! Landslide!' but it was too late.
Driver Jason Baughman told KGW the car was pushed off the side of the road. "A split second, I was worried we were going to be buried but it only came up to the windows," he said.
The trio, who were commuting from Aloha to Gresham, got out of the car via a passenger window. All three, including passenger Scott Luther, told KGW that once they were out of the car and free of the debris, they were laughing and enjoying the moment.
Three young men were swept off road by slide, all ok. This is two of them. @KGWNews pic.twitter.com/4wZrgBFxvP
— Tim Gordon (@TimGordonKGW) March 15, 2017
A large crack at the top of the slide, about 45 feet above the roadway, widened from about 6 inches to about a foot on March 16.
Crack is 45 ft above West Burnside, 50 ft from road, 120 ft long. City crews making it safe! #pdxtraffic pic.twitter.com/dbohGLNRXZ
— PDX Transportation (@PBOTinfo) March 16, 2017
