While park crews and contractors race to complete final projects, others already are planning next year’s work as Mount Rainier National Park continues to recover from the flood of November 2006.
That’s why, on a cold late October morning, assistant park superintendent Randy King joined almost a dozen other park staffers at Tahoma Creek Bridge.
Floodwaters left behind enough rock and silt that there’s only a 4-foot opening under the bridge.
Park geomorphologist Paul Kennard said they need at least 10 feet under the bridge.
The discussion that day was where the heavy equipment should enter the creek, where to divert the stream and where more than 1,000 cubic yards of material should be put.
At Longmire, a different contractor was rushing to complete a wall more than 1,000 feet long that will stabilize the bank and protect the park’s operations complex.
“We’re pushing our luck with the weather trying to get some of this work done,” King said.
For Carl Fabiani and his trail crews, the work is finished for this year. But the trails supervisor is thinking about the projects to be tackled next year.
Topping the list are the rebuilding of 11/4 miles of the Glacier Basin Trail, a 1,500-foot section of the Carbon Glacier Trail and the final stretches of the Wonderland Trail in Stevens Canyon.
“There is a very substantial amount of work to be done,” Fabiani said.
“If you look back at where we were a year ago, we’ve made some tremendous progress. We had a lot of help, and we’ll need it again,” King said.
Jeffrey P. Mayor: 253-597-8640
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