Olympic National Park's eight-mile Obstruction Point Road will close for the season on Monday, September 23 to allow the park road crew to complete a major resurfacing and repair project before fall rains arrive.
"We ask for the public's patience and understanding as our crews perform this critical preventative maintenance project," said Olympic National Park Superintendent Sarah Creachbaum."While we recognize that this early fall closure may create an inconvenience for some visitors, it's been many years since we last resurfaced this road and we must focus on long-term access to Obstruction Point."
The project will include hauling and placing about 600 tons (or 60 dump truck loads) of gravel to restore the road.This process is then followed by grading and compaction of the new road surface using a motor grader and compaction rollers.All work will be done by the Olympic National Park road crew.
The project will also include maintenance and improvement of drainage features along the road to prevent erosion damage to the Obstruction Point Road.
The narrowness of the road, coupled with dump truck and heavy equipment traffic necessitates a full road closure while work is underway.
The road will open to non-motorized traffic only from Friday through Sunday, as well as the Columbus Day holiday, Monday Oct. 14, when crews and equipment are not working.
The Deer Park Road will remain open through mid-October, weather permitting.
Current road information is available by calling Olympic National Park's recorded information line at 360-565-3131 or online at nps.gov/olym/planyourvisit/current-road-conditions.htm.
Source: U.S. Department of the Interior, National Park Service
