Mount Rainier Road Safety Work Done

Visitors to Mount Rainier National Park and area businesses are breathing a sigh of relief.

A ceremony this week marked the completion of safety improvements to a scenic 10-mile stretch of the Mather Memorial Parkway, which leads to the eastern entrance of the park.

That should bring an end to nearly two years of frustrating construction delays for park visitors. It’s also good news for the roadside cafes and outdoor recreation businesses in nearby Enumclaw and Greenwater.

“So much of our economy is based on tourism that it’s been really tough,” said Enumclaw Mayor George Rossman.

Better known as Washington 410, or the Chinook Pass highway, the curving, two-lane Mather Memorial Parkway delivers 15 percent of the park’s 2 million annual visitors, as well as skiers to Crystal Mountain resort.

The parkway is wider now and is flanked by thick stands of hemlock, cedar and fir. It boasts 13 scenic viewpoints, crossing points for elk, passages for migrating salmon and replanted patches of native wildflowers and grasses.

However, the work is not all done. The $11 million-plus project to make the scenic corridor safer and more beautiful probably will take another five or six years, said Eric Walkinshaw, chief of planning for the park.

For now, though, visitors and businesses won’t have to deal with frustrations - such as road closures and heavy traffic - that have all been part of the project, Walkinshaw said.

There are still about 11 miles of work to be done on the highway, including almost four miles of especially rough terrain from Cayuse Pass to Chinook Pass, Walkinshaw said.

An environmental impact statement on the upcoming work will be ready in the early winter, and some of the minor work could start by fall 1997.