The wages of rain
Portland Traction (and then the Springwater Trail, after Metro had the tracks ripped out in favor of a MUP) goes through a fairly deep earthen cut just east of the old Espee Portland<->California mainline. And it’s been raining/snowing a lot this last couple of months, so sometime last week part of the cutting got it into its mind that it would be happier if it was slumped across the trail instead of propping up a fence at the top. So it slid out, and is slowly creeping out onto the trail (ignoring the one strand of safety tape that someone put up to discourage it.) I’m guessing Portland Parks (the agency that manages the part of the Springwater Trail in Portland) is waiting for it to stop raining so they can stabilize the hillside without taking out the neighborhood at the top, but one does have to wonder if all this newly exposed clay will just soak up more water and follow the leader down onto the path.
Comments
Across from where I’m working they’re putting in a (big, ornate, regional repair centre sort of) car dealership and a large parking structure.
The whole thing is on a mass of lacustrine clay from the days of Lake Iroquois; it’s been amusing to watch the expectations of drainage requirements shift. I think they’re on iteration four. (much excavation and yet more big concrete pipe.)
I do hope the train doesn’t get blocked because your expectation that clay likes to flow downhill when it won’t stop raining certainly matches what I’ve been watching happen to various bits of excavation.