Sun Road repairs are top priority
When former Glacier National Park Superintendent Dave Mihalic literally climbed into a washout near the Going-to-the-Sun Road's West Tunnel in June of 1995, he got an up close look at the road's future.
That incident, and the emergency repairs that followed, prompted Mihalic to sharply steer the park onto a new priority - reconstructing a road that had largely been given only patchwork treatment since it was opened in 1933.
For the last decade, the park has pursued a complex and often dreary bureaucratic effort to bring about a major reconstruction. A citizens advisory committee was appointed by the secretary of the interior to guide planning for the project, and there was a stream of thick reports from consultants, followed by an encyclopedic environmental impact statement, followed by Montana's congressional delegation spending years to get funding for the project.
It was easy, at times, to lapse into forgetfulness about what the whole thing was about - protecting the historic highway from catastrophic failure.
The epic rainfall that slammed the park two weeks ago caused serious damage on the road, including one washout near the East Tunnel that was bigger than the one Mihalic witnessed. There were other washouts and debris slides and places where the road was eaten or nibbled away by torrential runoff.
It was, all in all, a mess.
About the only good thing to come out of it, perhaps, is a renewed sense of clarity about the purpose of a reconstruction project that gets under way in earnest next year.
The engineers and crews that work on the Sun Road are already fully aware of how vulnerable it is to all kinds of heavy duty abuse from avalanches and flooding to normal vehicle traffic. But the average person who may use the road a couple times per summer might have wondered why the road seems to be under perpetual construction, with inconvenient delays.
Take a look at photos of the current damage on the park's Web site, and it's plain to see what all the fuss has been about.
We just hope reconstruction on the alpine stretch of the Going-to-the-Sun Road will be effective in armoring it against the elements for decades to come. Just as Glacier Park is a God-given treasure, the Sun Road is a man-made one. Both need to be protected and preserved for everyone to enjoy.