Date:  Monday, July 26, 2010

Contact: Dustin Terpening, WSDOT Communications, 360-757-5997 (Burlington)
Tony Hernandez, WSDOT Maintenance Superintendent, 360-788-2500 (Bellingham)

MT. BAKER – Crews clearing snow from the road to Artist Point are on track to reopen the last two miles of Mount Baker Highway (SR 542) by the end of this week.

“We have a difficult road ahead of us and a lot of snow to clear,” said maintenance superintendent Tony Hernandez. “We’re going to make a significant push to open the road by the end of this week – hopefully by Friday (July 30). We’ve got the weather on our side.”

Currently, crews have cut a rough path through the snow all the way to Artist Point, at the very end of the highway, and are working to clear the parking lot there. The snow is just below 20 feet deep in the parking lot - see photos taken this morning: http://www.flickr.com/photos/wsdot/4831064149/in/set-72157624451404810/.  

Once the parking lot is clear, crews will focus on widening the path through the snow between the Heather Meadows visitor center and the upper parking lot, which is about two miles long.

Crews opened the first mile of road to the Heather Meadows visitor center on July 21.

“There’s more snow up there this year than there has been in previous years,” said Hernandez. “It looked like we might not get the road open until early August because of all the snow. The crew has worked really hard and done a great job, and it looks like we’ll get it open in July after all.”

Opening the road in late July falls in line with previous openings. The road opened on July 28 in 2007 and July 27 in 2006. It opened on August 9 in 2002. In 2008 and 2009, the road opened in mid-July.

The road to Artist Point is 2.7 miles long and climbs more than 1,000 feet in elevation, topping out at nearly a mile above sea level. It is typically buried under snow and closed October through July.

The snow-clearing crew consists of three members and a snowblower, bulldozer and backhoe. They’ve been working 10-hour days, 4 days a week since July 6 to reopen the road.

Pictures of this year’s opening work are available on the WSDOT Flickr picture site: http://www.flickr.com/photos/wsdot/sets/72157624451404810/.  

For more information about Artist Point and to see the opening and closing history, visit the website: http://www.wsdot.wa.gov/Northwest/Baker/ArtistPoint/default.htm.  

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