April 30, 2007 — Work crews have spent thousands of hours repairing fractured roads and trails since a deluge last fall closed this popular park for the first time in a quarter-century.
Even as they prepare to reopen one of the Pacific Northwest's most popular attractions on May 5, officials say work still remains.
"Every road, every campground, every trail throughout the park was damaged to some extent," said Dave Uberuaga, superintendent of Mount Rainier National Park. "Facilities that had not been damaged in the whole history were wiped out."
Last fall, nearly 18 inches of rain fell in 36 hours, causing some $36 million in damage to the park, which draws 1.5 million visitors annually.
The Nisqually River overran its banks, tearing away a flood dike, the Sunshine Point Campground and a quarter-mile stretch of the west entrance road in one spot alone. On Highway 123, the north-south highway on the park's eastern edge, landslides left 80-foot canyons where the highway once stood.
Crews have restored utilities to the park and repaired at least two heavily damaged sections of the Nisqually Road inside the west entrance.
At a third section, where Kautz Creek swept across the road, two massive culverts have been installed and the creek redirected slightly so that the road can be reopened to Paradise by May 5, Uberuaga said.
Visitor centers and services will be open at each of the corners of the park, but people who expect to be able to drive through and stop at each will be disappointed. The Stevens Canyon Road could remain closed or restricted to one lane all summer.
And that north-south connection with 80-foot canyons? Highway 123 will be shut down at least until fall, as engineers haul 55,000 tons of rock — an estimated 1,800 truckloads — into the park to rebuild the road.
