News and Opinion from Sisters, Oregon
News and Opinion from Sisters, Oregon
Sometimes it rained. Sometimes it snowed. Frequently it did both.
The Santiam Pass went to a conditional closure on Saturday, with manned blockades preventing any vehicle without chains from traveling the dangerous highway which has taken five lives since Christmas.
Hoodoo Ski Area, closed since December 28 after rains washed away the season's first meager snow fall, received a much needed blanket of white and opened on Saturday.
"We don't measure (snowfall) in inches any more. In the past seven days we received five feet of snow. We had two days in a row when we got two feet each day," said Hoodoo General Manager Mike Obymako. He felt Hoodoo could see strong business in February and March.
Road crews in Sisters worked long hours, according to Highway Division Area Maintenance Manager Dave Neys, who pointed out that there are usually only two people on the Sisters road crew in any one shift and they must cover Highway 20 and Highway 126 from the Jack Creek turnoff near Suttle Lake all the way to Highway 97 in Bend and Redmond.
Neys said the public may not realize how limited are the plowing and sanding resources. There are only five to six people per shift regularly scheduled in Bend to take care of Highway 97 from the Crooked River to Fall River, east Highway 20 to Millican as well as Century Drive.
A single plow driver might be responsible for keeping 20 to 30 miles of road clear, according to Neys. If it is snowing, the plow is limited to 25 to 25 miles per hour. A two-lane road will take two passes.
Fortunately for the Sisters crew, Neys said, it was raining in Redmond through much of the storm. Conditions were worse in Bend and to the south, Neys said, where six to eight inches of slush made some roads nearly undrivable.
"We are not staffed to handle big storms or breakups," Neys said. "We run to the limits of our resources and beyond that it doesn't get taken care of until the storm quits."
Neys said he was informed of the conditional closure of the Santiam Highway on Saturday, a decision made about 6 p.m. by the Santiam maintenance crews which are directed out of Salem.
Under such a closure, even four-wheel drive units and vehicles with studded tires are prohibited from travel unless they are also using tire chains.
"That's because four-wheel-drive doesn't help you stop any faster," Neys said. The closure was lifted on Sunday at 4:05 p.m., although traction devices were still required.
Calls to the Santiam Pass Highway Maintenance Station went unanswered on Monday, presumably because every possible individual was out cleaning up the highway.
Reader Comments(0)