HWY 20 closure?! still..

[solarsteve]

Can someone please explain why the highway 20 is still closed and when it will be opening? I was in Mazama this evening and the sky is clear.. I herd it was a mudslide.. I have noticed through the past weeks the camp outside of Winthrop has grown exponentially.. thousands of people tents and such. if it is a mudslide can we get heavy machinery up there and construction people asap... Thanks for all your service!

[drewsky]

The Washington State Dept. of Transportation (WSDOT) posts live updates on Twitter/X/Xwitter. You can view the posts even if you don't have a Xwitter account with a simple search for "wsdot east twitter". Here is the full text of the most recent post from around noon today, 8/19:

"North Cascades **Aug. 19 UPDATE**: Still a lot to do cleaning up debris on SR 20 North Cascades Highway, and the road remains closed between Granite Creek and Easy Pass trailhead (milepost 148-157) for a few more days. How many days? Tough to say...

With an estimated 7000 tons of mud piled nearly 10 feet deep in some places, it's a lot to clear. There's also been a lot of rocks in the mud (some as large as boulders!) and the rocks slow the work down, so it's difficult to estimate how much longer we need to clean up.

We know that many are anxiously waiting for the road to reopen. More equipment has been brought [in] to help the crew and they have been working daily to clear the road. For now, plan to take US 2 or I-90 for east-west travel."

So even though the sky is clear, unfortunately the road is blocked by mud from when it wasn't clear.

[Ananda]

Thank you, drewsky!

[CAE]

Wow. Just wow.

[solarsteve]

thank you so much for info!