North Cascades Highway to open Wednesday
Published 5:30 pm Monday, May 23, 2011
It must have been that nice, warm weekend.
Enough snow has finally melted to allow the North Cascades Highway to open on Wednesday, May 25 -the second latest date the highway ever has opened for the year.
The latest date was June 14, 1974, two years after the highway was christened. The second-latest previous date, May 21, 1976, is now the third latest.
State maintenance crews will open the east and west winter closure gates on Highway 20 to traffic at noon Wednesday.
The clearing effort took more than six weeks, compared to just three-and-a-half weeks last spring. Nine feet of snow fell in the western slopes of the Cascades in March and a record 7 ½ feet in April.
Avalanche control specialists and snow clearing equipment had to be kept at Stevens Pass until the avalanche threat eased, according to the state Department of Transportation.
When they took the equipment to the North Cascades they found the highway buried in snow as deep as 75 feet.
The 37-mile winter closure stretch will be swept for sand, rocks and debris. It runs from milepost 134, seven miles east of Diablo Dam, to nine miles west of Mazama at milepost 171.
The highway closed for the winter Dec. 1. It typically opens between the last week in March and the first week in May. The earliest opening ever was March 10, 2005.
For more information, visit http://tinyurl.com/zctkk.
