Staircase Road/Forest Service Road 24 Paving #NP-2553

Commenting on This Project

Information

A portion of Forest Road 24 commonly known as Staircase Road is a 4-mile gravel road which parallels Lake Cushman a popular recreation area on the Olympic National Forest near Hood Canal. The road leads to the Staircase entrance of the Olympic National Park.  Stipulations in the 2009 Settlement Agreement overseen by FERC (Federal Energy Regulatory Commission) requires that a portion of Forest Road 24 be paved to protect water quality. This will also benefit the area with a better road surface permanent dust abatement reduced congestion and improved utility infrastructure for a portion of the Olympic National Park which is accessed by this road. Partners in the project include the US Forest Service Tacoma Power the Federal Highway Administration and the National Park Service.

The undertaking will take several months to complete as culverts will be replaced asphalt surfacing and public safety improvements at day use areas by the lake will be installed.  Rockfall mitigation and a utility conduit down the length of the road are also in the plans. It is expected that this extensive work may require full closure of the road for several months. 

You may also use this page to provide feedback or comments.Simply fill in your contact information and type a comment in the text box.  You may also use the paperclip icon to attach separate documents.  Comments are part of the public record.

For questions regarding the paving project, mailing list, or this webpage contact Kim Crider at kimberly.crider@usda.gov.

UPDATES

  • Sept. 2021 Update: Paving of the road, originally expected to occur in 2022, has been delayed until further notice.
  • The June 30 2020 Virtual Public Meeting was recorded and is available online: https://usfs.adobeconnect.com/pwna68hwt9wa/
It is well documented that sedimenation into resevoirs can affect drinking water quality and reservoir operations especially after a catastrophic event like a wildfire.  Tacoma Power provided input to the US Forest Service for this project and did not express concerns about current or future reservoir operations being affected by forest management activities.  Tacoma Power did not express concern about sedimentation affecting dam operations so reservoir sedimentation was not identified as a substantial issue. The reduction of road miles in the project and the degree to which the thinning units are buffered from streamcourses along with properly implemented Best Management Practices should prevent an increase and result in a long term decrease in anthropogenic sedimentation into the resevoir.  Several of the roads that are proposed for decommissioning are within active landslides.  The Forest is concentrating on addressing many of the highest aquatic risk roads and several of the worst condition roads are being addressed. The Forest is unfamiliar with Tacoma Power's current reservoir capacity or how the reservoir has been maintained or monitored since it was first built in 1972. Water quality and watershed health is paramount to our reasoning for decommissioning and stabilizing our road infrastructure. There would be a reduction in sediment delivery to streams and downstream sediment deposition in the reservoir as a result of this project.


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