Snow chokes major highways

Published 9:55 am Friday, February 1, 2008

STEVENS PASS — Traffic from one side of the state to the other hit a major roadblock Thursday as U.S. 2 was closed at Stevens Pass.

Messy mountain road conditions likely will be a problem for several days as more snow is forecast. Another 2 feet was predicted to fall in the mountains by this afternoon, the National Weather Service said.

Gov. Chris Gregoire on Thursday proclaimed a state of emergency for several of the hardest-hit counties as snow blanketed much of Eastern Washington.

Snow could be seen in Snohomish County lowlands overnight and this morning but probably won’t result in closed schools and slowed traffic, said Dennis D’Amico, a weather service meteorologist.

On Thursday, avalanche dangers already had closed I-90 at Snoqualmie Pass when a semi became stuck in the snow at Stevens Pass.

The resulting mess, combined with avalanche control measures at Stevens Pass, kept U.S. 2 closed most of the day. Crews reopened the pass Thursday evening.

People trying to cross Snoqualmie Pass will have to wait until this morning to find out when I-90 may reopen, said Chris Christopher, a state Department of Transportation spokesman.

“We won’t be opening up until we’re sure it’s going to be safe,” he said.

With the exception of a few hours Wednesday, the state’s major east-to-west highway has been closed since Tuesday morning.

As a result, many truckers re-routed over Stevens Pass on Thursday only to get hung up in the traffic snarl on U.S. 2.

Idling in traffic Thursday, trucker Chris Woods had his rig chained up and waiting to deliver a load to Green Bay, Wis. He said winter delays are part of the job.

“It’s not being a real hassle for us right now,” Woods said. “In the wintertime, we know we’ve got stops like this. You either worry about it or you don’t worry about it. It’s a whole lot easier not to worry about it.”

The mountain road closures were costing Everett trucking business Hogland Transfer more than $5,000 each day, company president Steve Holtgeerts said.

“It’s been a challenging week,” he said. In 30 years of driving trucks over the passes, Holtgeerts said he can’t remember a winter this bad. And the forecast doesn’t give him optimism.

“It doesn’t appear in the near term that it’s going to get any better,” he said.

Exactly how much the pass closures are costing the state’s economy is hard to tell, experts said.

“People will adjust, they’ll make up for it,” said Paul Sommers, an economics professor at Seattle University. “It’ll be OK, even though it’s a major pain in the neck for everyone right now.”

State transportation crews vowed to continue working around the clock to try to keep the roadways open.

On U.S. 2, where snow was forecast to continue falling at a rate of about an inch an hour overnight, crews likely will conduct avalanche controls before dawn today, Christopher said.

When crews set off explosives Thursday to clear avalanche danger, a slide more than 20 feet deep came barreling down the hillside and covered U.S. 2, said Dave Bierschbach, a transportation department engineer.

“It came in much deeper than we thought,” he said.

That’s one of the reasons the highway was closed for almost eight hours, he said.

Shepard Drumman, 21, of Mercer Island said he was headed to Stevens Pass to snowboard when he got stuck in the traffic. He waited several hours before turning around.

“It kind of sucks, but I mean you never know what you’re going to get into when you head up to the pass,” Drumman said.

Leslie Crofoot, 50, of Everett said she and her brother enjoyed the snow while they waited to get across the mountains.

“It’s not all that bad. It’s really beautiful,” she said. “We’ve got cigarettes, we’ve got coffee, we’re happy as clams.”

Still, with more bad weather on the way, officials are cautioning people to avoid driving in the mountains.

“If they don’t need to be going up there at this point, don’t,” Washington State Patrol trooper Kirk Rudeen said. “If they do go up there, be prepared for extreme winter conditions. Carry chains and bring a lot of patience because they’re going to need it.”

Reporter Jackson Holtz: 425-339-3437 or jholtz@heraldnet.com.