PORT ANGELES — Funding has been requested and plans are under review for a temporary one-lane bridge over a 60-foot washout near the Elwha Campground on Olympic Hot Springs Road.
Once plans are approved by such agencies as the Army Corps of Engineers, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, and Fish and Wildlife, construction would take from six to eight weeks, said Barb Maynes, Olympic National Park spokeswoman.
She didn’t know when plans would be approved or when construction would begin.
The washout has blocked access to the Elwha River Valley west of Port Angeles since November. Olympic Hot Springs Road is closed to vehicles at the Madison Falls trailhead, about a mile north of the washout itself.
Temporary bridge
The temporary bridge would be in place for as long as five years before a more permanent structure is built.
The Elwha Campground, which was severely damaged in fall and winter floods, isn’t expected to be reopened this year, Maynes said.
The National Park Service has requested emergency funds from the Federal Highway Administration to install a temporary bridge over the washout, National Park Service Director John Jarvis said last week.
U.S. Rep Derek Kilmer, D-Gig Harbor, questioned Jarvis about the status of the road in a House Appropriations Interior Subcommittee hearing on the National Park Service budget Wednesday.
“We’ve got a lot of private landowners and park users and research scientists and park service staff who are very heavily impacted by the loss of this single access point,” Kilmer said.
“So I was hoping you could just discuss what the service is doing to expedite repairs to the road and ensure that access is restored as quickly as possible.”
Said Jarvis: “We expect that to take about six weeks, six to eight weeks, to get that installed.
“And that will serve — not great — but it will serve access to the landowners that are up that road and our own administrative access. We’ve got park housing, we have a maintenance facility up there and the public access as well.”
Kilmer represents the 6th Congressional District, which covers the Olympic and Kitsap peninsulas and most of Tacoma.
Maynes confirmed that a few private landowners have land past the park entrance.
$424,000 request
The park service requested $424,000 for the project, Maynes said.
The temporary bridge would be expected to be in use for about five years, she said.
“During those five years, we will pursue plans and funding for a longer-term fix,” she said Saturday.
Since the road is in an active floodplain, “a longer-term solution will take much larger effort,” she added.
With a five-year funding bill in place, the National Park Service will work with the highway administration to complete “a major reconstruction on that site,” Jarvis said.
But he also said that would take years.
“We’ll be living with that temporary fix for three to five years,” Jarvis said.
Washed out
The road washed out when a dry Elwha River side channel was reactivated in a Nov. 17 flood.
A second flood that occurred Dec. 8 and Dec. 9 caused additional damage to the road and nearby Elwha Campground.
The damage to the Elwha Campground was extreme, Maynes said.
“Some picnic tables were moved by the force of the water. Some are buried in silt. It’s unlikely that we will be able to get that open this year,” she said.
Altair Campground was also damaged in the Nov. 17 flood. It had been closed because of damage done in a December 2014 storm.
“Our neck of the woods has had a really tough winter,” said Kilmer, a Port Angeles native.
Pedestrian bridge
A pedestrian bridge over the side channel has been replaced by a small wooden bridge that can support emergency vehicles.
Seedlings have been planted along the banks of the surviving road sections to prevent further erosion.
“I know you’ve been getting a lot of rain up there,” Jarvis told Kilmer.
“At least we’re getting some snowpack, both in the Cascades, the Olympics and the Sierras this year, which is a good thing.
“The good thing on the Elwha is that it’s helped flush out all that sediment that was backed up on the rivers,” added Jarvis, referring to the removal of the Elwha and Glines Canyon dams, a project that began in 2011.
Kilmer described Olympic National Park as an “extraordinary asset that draws a whole bunch of people to our region.
“I’m often reminded of just what an economic driver it is, not just in terms of hotel stays and restaurants and things like that, but my grandfather helped pave the road up Hurricane Ridge, so it’s been an extraordinary asset,” Kilmer said.
The National Park Service system has 410 sites, including 58 national parks.
The service has recently restored seasonal ranger hiring to peak levels, coordinated more than 400,000 volunteers, completed deferred maintenance projects and expanded partnership through a centennial program, Jarvis said.
“All of these actions will help sustain our parks for another 100 years,” he told the committee.
The National Park Service drew a record 307 million visitors in 2015 nationwide, Jarvis said.
“These visits do more than provide inspirational, educational and recreational opportunities; in 2014, they drove over $30 billion in economic impact, supporting hundreds of thousands of jobs in communities around the country,” he said.
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Reporter Rob Ollikainen can be reached at 360-452-2345, ext. 56450, or at rollikainen@peninsuladailynews.com.
