OLYMPIC NATIONAL PARK — Repairs to the Switchback Trailhead culvert at mile 14.5 on Hurricane Ridge Road are scheduled to begin during the week of Sept. 16.
Visitors should expect short traffic delays of less than five minutes for alternating single-lane traffic during weekday work hours during the four weeks of the repair project, said Penny Wagner, Olympic National Park spokesperson, in a press release.
Switchback Trailhead and parking area will be closed for the duration of the repairs. The trailhead parking area will be used as the staging area for equipment and materials for the project.
The initial failure of the Switchback Trailhead culvert occurred in fall 2017 on the day before Thanksgiving.
Park road crew completed an emergency repair over the holiday which prevented the road from being undercut and ultimately prevented the loss of access to Hurricane Ridge until repairs could have been made in the summer.
The 48-inch culvert is in an active drainage and avalanche chute at an elevation where precipitation and the freezing and melting of snow send high volumes of water, rock and debris from a large watershed downslope to the culvert, Wagner said.
The contract, funded through the Federal Lands Transportation Program of the Federal Highway Administration, was awarded to Verdis of Coeur d’Alene, Idaho.
It is being managed collaboratively by the Federal Highway Administration and the National Park Service.
For information about visiting Olympic National Park, visitors should consult the park website at www.nps.gov/olym.
