POULSBO — The Kitsap County Public Works Department has closed NW Sawdust Hill Road, between Stottlemyer Road and Big Valley Road NE, until predictable dry weather is forecast.

Crews were dispatched around midnight Tuesday to respond to a call reporting the problem about 1/4 mile from the Big Valley Road intersection, and secured the area before returning Wednesday morning to inspect it. They found a 50-foot section along the road’s northern shoulder where soils beneath the road and along the shoulder had broken away.

There is a two-foot gap between the road surface and where the shoulder fell. There is also a large crack in the road’s surface, near the centerline.

The road has been closed indefinitely, said public works spokesman Doug Bear. After further inspection Thursday, engineers determined that the soil between the road surface and the hard clay had become saturated and unstable, he said.

In order to repair the road, crews have to remove the existing soil and replace it. But to do that, “They need a week of predictable dry weather,” Bear said. “It could be two weeks or two months. It will be just dependent on the weather.”