NEWHALEM – WSDOT maintenance crews will open the gates on North Cascades Highway to traffic at noon on Friday, April 16. The opening comes 3 1/2 weeks after the snow removal process began, despite approximately 100 inches of new snowfall recorded since March 22.
The highway closed for the winter November 17, 2009, following two temporary closures earlier in the month. Last spring, the highway opened at 8 p.m. Friday, April 24. Most openings have come between the last week in March and the first week in May. The earliest opening ever was March 10, 2005, only to be closed by snowstorms and avalanches again for ten days from 3/26 to 4/4. There was one drought year, four years after the highway opened in 1976, when the highway remained open all winter.
“The crews are really pleased that the highway will be open for the first weekend of fishing season (Apr. 24),” said Don Becker, WSDOT Twisp Maintenance Supervisor.
The 3-1/2 week reopening effort this year is among the shortest ever, attributed to the lower-than-normal snowpack. Typically, it requires closer to six weeks, officials said. However, this year, ore days were lost having to re-clear already “cleared” sections and clean up after new snow slides following several snow events that dropped from a half-foot to nearly two feet of snow, officials said.
The noon reopening gives WSDOT time to “sweep” the entire 37 mile winter closure zone for sand, rocks and debris between milepost 134, seven miles east of Diablo Dam on the west side of 4,855’ Rainy Pass and milepost 171, nine miles west of Mazama on the east side of 5,477’ Washington Pass.
“It provides the safety margin we need so the first drivers over the passes make their trip safely,” said Becker. ”We had to rent a helicopter and do active avalanche control in the Liberty Bell Mtn. and Cutthroat Ridge zones on Wednesday to bring down snow that would surely have come down on its own with the warm temperatures in the forecast,” said Becker, “We couldn’t allow traffic below potentially unstable avalanche chutes.” The avalanche control was successful to the point that crews weren’t able to clean up the huge piles of snow that slid down to the pavement in time for a Thursday opening.
Visit the North Cascades web page: www.wsdot.wa.gov/traffic/passes/northcascades
