Rebuilding Stevens Canyon Road at Mount Rainier With Great American Outdoors Act Funds

Crew members work on a stone support wall. NPS/Zack Martin.

The road

Stevens Canyon Road is Mount Rainier National Park's only east–west route across the park, linking the Nisqually–Paradise Road to Washington State Route 123 and joining the park's busiest areas, Paradise and Sunrise. It was designed to show off the mountain to visitors from the Puget Sound and Yakima areas, and leads to day-use areas and trailheads on the historic Wonderland Trail.

The project

With Great American Outdoors Act (GAOA) funding, the park set out to rehabilitate the road's final nine miles, building on two earlier projects finished in 2017.

The work

• fix structural and design problems: poor drainage, slumping, warped and cracked pavement;
• widen narrow shoulders;
• build reinforced rock retaining walls to stabilize failing fill, and stabilize steep, unprotected side slopes;
• repave the road;
• repair and repoint the Civilian Conservation Corps-era stonework — guard walls, retaining walls, culvert headwalls, tunnel portals, bridge and viaduct parapets, stone curbs — replacing bad mortar and resetting loose or fallen stones, part of the park's National Historic Landmark District.

Construction under way on Stevens Canyon Road. NPS/Zack Martin.

Why it matters

The road is vital to park operations, concessioners and visitors, and its deterioration was accelerating. The project aims to:

• keep the only cross-park route open and safe, including for emergency crews;
• avoid road failure and the economic harm closures do to concessioners and gateway businesses;
• cut emergency repair and routine maintenance costs;
• extend the road's life by an estimated 20–30 years.

During the work the road closed intermittently, with delays until construction ended. More: the park's Stevens Canyon Road rehabilitation page.

Sources

Based on "Stevens Canyon Road in Mount Rainier National Park to be Rehabilitated through GAOA Funding," National Park Service; a work of the United States government in the public domain.