Hood River News

Never mind the perennial expression “think snow.”

Snow we’ve had, for several weeks now.

All November the high school snowboard and ski team kids were saying something else:

“Pray for pavement.”

A “Pray for Pavement” party went ahead as scheduled Dec. 7 at River City Saloon, as a benefit for the Pacific Northwest Amateur Ski Series. But the term never even got the chance to become part of the local lingo.
Good thing.

Highway 35 is open as of today.

As of today, the plea is met.

Pavement, ladies and gentlemen — we have pavement.

That means lift-off for anyone traveling south around the mountain, and the start of the Mt. Hood Meadows season.

Snow recreationists can again enjoy full access to the slopes, rails and trails.

It all happened because ODOT is spending an estimated $20 million and ODOT crews and Tri-State Construction frequently worked around-the-clock.

This was a job to do. A contract was signed, and Tri-State went to work for pay. We have confidence the job was done well. Moreover, it is impressive that the state and the company were able to move as quickly as they did to make the repairs and restore the highway. By expediting the project, the parties involved showed they understood the importance of this public works project.

With large chunks of the roadway washed out or covered up by boulders, mud, logs, and the incredible force of water, Highway 35 lay like a broken chain, a few links knocked out, rendering the whole strand unusable.

The uncomfortable side to all of this is the likelihood of it happening again. The frequency of Highway 35 washouts has increased dramatically in the past 15 years.

The public should take a keen interest in the geographical and financial demands involved in a long-term resolution to the susceptibility of drastic damage to this mountain highway, including ODOT’s “Hot Spot” study of the seven major flood zones. A longer, larger White River bridge is probably in order. That seems to be the primary weak link on the southern approach to Mt. Hood Meadows.

Had the ski resort been accessible from at least one direction, the ski season would have started in November and the county’s largest employer would have been up and running before now.

But the other side of the coin is this: A Dec. 8 opening of ski season compares rather favorably with other years when the ski lifts stood still for lack of snow well into December or even January.

So keep on thinking snow, and thanks for the pavement.