SEATTLE — Washington State Department of Transportation (WSDOT) crews are in the final stretch of clearing the North Cascades Highway (US 20) for the season.
The highway shuts down every year in late November or early December due to major snowfall.
Clearing began on March 23. Crews are not only plowing the road, but making repairs and keeping an eye out for avalanche chutes.
WSDOT said crews encountered a few slides, but it appears business as usual with clearing the highway.
One slide on the west side complicated things a bit, according to WSDOT. There was a large rockslide four miles west of the seasonal closure point. As of this writing, both directions remain blocked and there is no estimated time to reopen.
On top of that, there’s still some damage from the December flooding event that will need to be repaired.
Typically, the highway reopens in mid-to-late April or early May.
WSDOT has not yet indicated a possible opening date for this year.
It’s unclear if the lower-than-average snowpack this year will have any impact on an opening date.
For the last two years, the highway reopened between April 19-20. The two years prior to those (2022-2023), it opened between May 10-11.
We saw an early April opening in 2015-- that year, it reopened on April 3. The earliest its ever opened was in 2001, on March 22.