PORT ANGELES — Clallam Transit’s Hurricane Ridge shuttle will not begin service on Thursday, as originally planned, since Hurricane Ridge Road remains closed after the blaze that destroyed the lodge on May 7.
Shuttle service is planned to resume as soon as the National Park Service determines it is safe to do so, but no date has yet been given.
The park service is hoping to release a timeline by Friday for reopening the area, according to Amos Amly, acting public information officer for Olympic National Park.
“(The investigation) is still ongoing,” Amly said. “They’ve determined the whole area doesn’t need to be closed to the public. Just the burn site will be closed off and the investigation team will be in there.”
Debris removal can’t begin until the investigation is complete, Amly said, and it’s currently unclear if the area will need to be closed during that process.
The day lodge closed in March and was scheduled to undergo rehabilitation for the next two years, but the Hurricane Ridge area was set to reopen before Memorial Day weekend, according to the National Park Service.
The majority of Olympic National Park remains open, and visitor information can be found at the park’s website, nps.gov/olym.
The shuttle typically ran during the summer from The Gateway transit center in downtown Port Angeles directly to the Hurricane Ridge Day Lodge parking lot at a cost of $1 each way, in addition to the cost of a park pass.
The day lodge rehabilitation project was funded by a $10.8 million appropriation included in the Great American Outdoors Act, but the plans for the future are uncertain and will not be made until the investigation is complete, park officials have said.
________
Reporter Peter Segall can be reached at peter.segall@peninsuladailynews.com.
