North Cascades Highway: Crews to begin snow removal this month

by the Foothills Gazette
NEWHALEM – Washington State Department of Transportation (WSDOT) crews found lower-than-normal snow levels during a field trip on Feb. 22 up the North Cascades Highway to assess snow conditions, officials said.
“Right now, snow and debris amounts are down compared to previous years. We dug a snow pit near the summit and found a relatively shallow and stable snow pack,” Avalanche Control Supervisor Mike Stanford said in a press release.
Based on the field trip, the assessment team has set a date of March 22 for crews to begin the annual process of snow removal.
Despite the lower-than-normal snow totals, the March 22 start date isn’t any earlier than the previous four years’ start dates, officials said. “We really can’t start any earlier,” Maintenance Assistant Region Administrator Dave Bierschbach said. “Our mountain pass maintenance crews and equipment are on an round-the-clock winter schedule until March 15. That’s the soonest we can release any of the snowblowers and crews from the other mountain passes and bring them here.”
Bierschbach also said that the lower-than-normal snow amounts should make for a faster-than-usual opening and that it could take as few as three weeks instead of the usual six.
The assessment team took snow-depth measurements from Silver Star Gate (milepost 171) all the way to the bare pavement they found about nine miles above the west side closure gate (milepost 134). Measurements included: Silver Star Gate – 3.3 feet compared with 2 feet last year; Cutthroat Ridge #6 – 9 feet compared with 25 feet last year; and Liberty Bell Mountain #1 – 12 feet compared to 40 feet last year.
The highway was closed for the season on Nov. 17, 2009. Last spring, the highway reopened on April 24.
For more information, visit the SR 20 North Cascades Highway web page at www.wsdot.wa.gov/Traffic/Passes/NorthCascades/

Published March 1, 2010