Closing in on Logan Pass
Avalanche technician Mark Dundas stands in front of a sprawling avalanche debris field along Going-to-the-Sun Road. Dundas said it is the largest he has ever encountered. The debris behind him rises 15 to 20 feet above the road. Jim Mann/Daily Inter Lake
A rotary plow throws snow Thursday off Going-to-the-Sun Road in the Big Bend area about 3 miles from Logan Pass. A forecast for warm, sunny weather over the next few days should help park plow crews in their advance toward the pass. Jim Mann/Daily Inter Lake
Plow crews churn through avalanche debris
Aside from plow crews having to clear tons of debris, a colossal avalanche that crossed Glacier National Park's Going-to-the-Sun Road early this year will not cause delays in opening the road over Logan Pass.
The west-side plow crew was churning through deep snow at Big Bend on Thursday, closing to within three miles of the pass.
And workers are staging for this summer's reconstruction of a 1.6-mile section of road that includes a portion of road above the Loop that was damaged by the Class 5 avalanche.
"We always get something we have to adjust to," said John Schnaderbeck, project engineer with the Federal Highway Administration's Western Federal Lands Division.
Schnaderbeck said the avalanche damage will cost between $200,000 and $300,000 to repair, but it won't delay opening of Sun Road at the pass. The monetary damage was actually far more, because the slide wiped out 300 feet of historic rock guardwall that was built in 1928.
Replacing that rock-and-mortar work would be extremely expensive, Schnaderbeck said, but it won't happen because of the potential for future avalanches in the same area. Less expensive rock barriers will be installed instead.
The slide also damaged a section of the outside lane, but the road already is passable by vehicles.
This summer's construction work will progress right into the slide area. And by late summer or fall, Schnaderbeck said the multiyear reconstruction will move into the 3.5-mile alpine section of road between Big Bend and Logan Pass.
"From a rehabilitation standpoint, it is probably the most difficult section of Road," Schnaderbeck said, noting that it involves steep terrain and considerable work to rebuild or stabilize retaining walls.
But Glacier Park Superintendent Chas Cartwright revealed this week that the estimated remaining cost of the overall reconstruction project has been trimmed substantially, from a whopping $270 million to about $180 million.
Cartwright explained Thursday that the $90 million reduction is the result of a careful analysis by park and federal highways officials who are taking a different approach to the project.
"The sense was that it was so much money, that the future of actually getting that money wasn't going to happen," Cartwright said, referring to the $270 million estimate.
The project was never "gold plated," he said, but there were ways to cut back on costs by reducing certain types of work, such as extensive and expensive rock bolting planned to secure the cliffs above and below the road.
Cartwright said that work has been scaled back under a new philosophy: "If it's stable, leave it be."
There's also less masonry and rock scaling work.
"We whittled it down to the basics, to focus on what needed the most attention," he said.
There is also some expectation that the remaining cost of the project can be further reduced. For starters, the $270 million estimate presented a large increase in the project cost based on last summer's record-high fuel and raw material prices.
Those prices have since dropped sharply and future project estimates could reflect that, Cartwright said.
The park also is pitching ideas to provide road construction contractors with more flexibility to expedite the project and reduce costs.
One option is allowing for more simultaneously active work zones, but that would require longer delays for people traveling on the road. Currently, combined delays along the 50-mile road cannot exceed 30 minutes.
Another option would involve adjusting the current September date when Logan Pass can be reached from one direction, allowing for two-lane construction work that entirely closes the road on one side of the pass.
The closure currently must occur the first Monday after Sept. 15, but if the road were closed sometime between Sept. 10 and 15, it could provide for at least five days of far more productive two-lane work.
Cartwright said if the project can be expedited, it could save between $1 million to $2 million a year, and the entire alpine reconstruction could be finished between 2013 and 2015.
Reporter Jim Mann may be reached at 758-4407 or by e-mail at jmann@dailyinterlake.com