Heavy rains cause closure on Sunnyslope Road that will last into next year

Sunnyslope Road between SW Lake Flora Road and Cynthia Lane in South Kitsap will be closed indefinitely, according to Kitsap County, after this week's heavy rains led to an issue that caused part of the road to collapse.

The week's precipitation led to the failure of a culvert where Coulter Creek runs beneath the road, just south of where Cynthia Lane, a road that has no outlet, branches off Sunnyslope. The creek is flowing outside of the culvert and washing out the roadbed, and the road will be completely closed until sometime next year, according to a statement issued by Kitsap County on Wednesday. The closure at Lake Flora is just past the roundabout south of Trophy Lake golf course.

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The county is consulting with the state's Department of Fish and Wildlife and other resource agencies to explore options to permanently replace the failed culvert, the county said.

"It is likely that the replacement structure will need to be constructed during the mid-to late summer of 2024 due to fish window restrictions," the county said. "The road will remain closed until this replacement structure is in place."

Reporter Peiyu Lin covers the military and South Kitsap for the Kitsap Sun. She can be reached at pei-yu.lin@kitsapsun.com or on X, formerly Twitter, @peiyulintw.

This article originally appeared on Kitsap Sun: Culvert fails, Sunnyslope Road near Lake Flora Road closed