Sun Road project deserves support

There should be a strong degree of public support and patience, this year in particular, for road work on Glacier National Park's Going-to-the-Sun Road.

Let's face it, the park has been and will be fighting an uphill battle in dealing with the by-now obvious vulnerabilities of the historic highway. Last November, the road was slammed with runoff from a historic rain storm, causing a series of debris slides and washouts, the worst taking out both lanes and leaving a 100-foot gap in the road.

The timing of the storm was such that park officials barely had time to get a look at the damage before it was all buried by snow for the winter.

While it was an exceptional event, it reveals the nature of trying to maintain a road that was chiseled into cliffs and avalanche chutes more than 70 years ago.

Indeed, the 2006 storm was exactly the type of event that prompted the Park Service to be worried about the lack of attention given to the alpine portion of Sun Road since it was completed in 1933. In essence, that stretch of road has been held together only by patchwork repairs after years of being pounded by avalanches, boulders and millions of users.

It was just over 10 years ago when park leaders first pondered the possibility of a catastrophic failure on the road, and the impacts of shutting it down for a full summer season or even longer. That led to years of costly studies and public involvement and planning for a rehabilitation project, followed by years of seeking money to pay for the project. Finally it came together - with this year scheduled to be the first truly aggressive phase in a rehabilitation project that's expected to last for several years altogether.

But first, the park must contend with the usual slogging effort to clear the road of snow, along with cleaning up and repairing storm damage that's encountered along the way.

The usual grumpiness from merchants and visitors about a delayed opening at Logan Pass won't be fitting this time.

This spring will present unprecedented challenges for the park that the public should recognize with patience, and then appreciate once they are overcome.