Interim access to the upper Queets River valley in the southwestern portion of Olympic National Park is expected to be restored this summer through connecting a series of Forest Service and Department of Natural Resources roads to provide an alternative route.
Queets Road has been closed to traffic since March 2005, when a landslide at milepost 8 undercut the road and made it unsafe for vehicles.
In January 2006, a larger slide at the same site wiped out 150 feet of the road, leaving a 100-foot deep chasm and closing the area to pedestrian traffic.
The National Park Service Pacific West Region issued a finding on Thursday that road repairs would have no significant environmental impact, announced Barb Maynes, park spokeperson, clearing the way for work to begin this spring.
“We are excited to be moving ahead to restore access into the Queets rain forest by the end of this summer,” said Bill Laitner, Olympic National Park superintendent.
“We are particularly grateful to the Department of Natural Resources and U.S. Forest Service for working with us to establish an alternate route into the upper Queets.”
The new route will use Forest Service roads 21 and 2180, both of which are open to the public now, to connect to Forest Service Road 2180-010 and DNR Road FR-Q-2100, neither of which is open now.
In turn, these roads lead to a National Park Service road to provide a route into the upper Queets.
Park crews will begin improvements to these roads this spring.
Crews will install a bridge; clear roadways, adjacent ditches and shoulders and grade and resurface the roads.
Once the roads are ready, the crews will prepare the ranger station and campground for opening to the public, said Maynes.
An Environmental Assessment for Restoring Interim Access to the Queets Area was released in December for public review and comment.
The document analyzed one possibility for restoring access, along with an alternative of taking no action.
Both the environmental assessment and the finding of no significant impact may be viewed on-line at http://parkplanning.nps.gov.
For more information, phone 360- 565-3004.
