Morning closures slated for Hurricane Ridge Road
Published 12:01 am Friday, May 31, 2013
PORT ANGELES — Hurricane Ridge Road will be closed for five hours on eight weekday mornings in June to allow Olympic National Park to complete its annual ditch clearing.
The road will be closed at the Heart o’ the Hills entrance station between 6 a.m. to 11 a.m. Monday, June 10, through Thursday, June 13, and from Monday, June 17, through Thursday, June 20.
Park officials said the closures are necessary to allow the road crew to work safely and quickly.
Annual ditch clearing has been accomplished without road closures in recent years because flaggers have directed motorists through one-lane work areas.
No flaggers available
However, flaggers are not available this year because of the loss of two seasonal road crew positions because of federal sequestration, park officials said.
“Without flaggers to provide safe travel conditions through work areas on the narrow and winding road, we will close the road for several hours each day,” Olympic National Park Superintendent Sarah Creachbaum said in a statement.
“Safety of our employees and visitors remains our highest priority.”
Olympic and other national parks were required to cut their annual budgets by 5 percent effective March 1 as a result of the across-the-board sequestration spending cuts.
The mandatory reduction resulted in a loss of about $640,000 from Olympic National Park’s annual budget — from $12.87 million in fiscal year 2012 to an estimated $12.23 million in 2013.
Park officials have emphasized that the sequestration cuts will not affect public safety.
