ASHFORD, Wash. — State Route 706 between Ashford and Mount Rainier remains closed following a series of landslides, but residents impacted by the slide got good news Wednesday.
Crews from the Washington State Department of Transportation (WSDOT) cleared a lane on the highway for emergency vehicles to access a community of roughly 200 people.
And in a surprise move, about 20 carloads of residents were escorted back into their neighborhood on the state highway Wednesday afternoon.
WSDOT crews determined it was safe for the cars to drive through the quarter of a mile slide area, but a spokesperson said it’s not known when the next group would be allowed through.
The state still needs to assess the stability of the hill above the highway and just how much damage was done.
“There’s a lot of damage to shoulders. There’s a lot of undermining of the roadway all of which has to be addressed before we can safely allow traffic on here,” said John Wynands, Region Administrator for the Washington Department of Transportation.
Park rangers have been taking residents in and out of their neighborhoods on forest service roads since last Friday.
But those convoys have only occurred every other day.
A National Park Service spokesperson said because of potential damage to roads within the park property, Friday’s escort will likely be the last.
Wynands said he would like WSDOT to be able to continue the escorts on the highway, but he said he did not know when that could happen.
