Sun Road construction continuing

A stretch of pleasant weather this fall has helped progress on reconstruction of the Going-to-the-Sun Road.

With the road closed to vehicle traffic from Avalanche Creek to Siyeh Bend, crews have been able to make significant headway on numerous projects.

On the west side crews have been working on both the lower and alpine sections of the highway. About four miles of the highway from the Logan Pit, which is a staging area for construction equipment, to the west side tunnel are dug up and unpaved.

Crews last week were putting the finishing touches on a 1,400-foot section near the pit that had undergone a “sub excavation,” where the roadway is dug down to the base and then stabilized and rebuilt.

“This weather’s been really nice. It’s really let us get a lot of work done,” said Gabe Krumbein, project engineer with the Federal Highway Administration. Until last weekend, Glacier had seen a solid month of pleasant weather.

Krumbein said crews were working seven days a week on the road, with 24-hour shifts five of those seven days. At night, crews do stationary work like replacing culverts. The road has hundreds of culverts that have to be replaced. They’ll likely continue working seven days a week until Thanksgiving, though Krumbein noted that heavy rain and snow — which Glacier has seen this week, can hamper or stop efforts altogether.

In addition to the subsurface work, a large milling machine was grinding up the existing asphalt and putting it back down on the highway below the West Side Tunnel. The resulting mix makes a good base that will eventually be graded and leveled in preparation for paving.

In the west side alpine section from Big bend to Logan Pass, masonry crews last week were completing stonework on the road. Mike Bercier of Anderson masonry and co-worker Ralph Harding were placing the final stones on a massive wall that was rebuilt near the Triple Arches.

Bercier said the work at times was “spiritual,” because he could see the nervousness of the original masons as they worked in that area, which has sheer cliffs that drop hundreds of feet straight down.

On the east side of the highway, work continues from Siyeh Bend to Logan Pass. That section, too, is not paved.

Because crews are working on the highway seven days a week on the west side, hiker and biker access is limited to just a mile or so beyond the gate at Avalanche Creek.

On the east side, hikers and bikers could reach Logan Pass when crews aren’t working on the weekends, as they’re working a five-day schedule.

Krumbein said the unpaved sections will likely stay that way through the winter and will be paved before the road opens next summer. Park officials have said the hope is to have the alpine section of the highway completed by 2013. The section from Siyeh Bend to Logan Pass should be complete by early next summer.