Death Valley National Park in California and Nevada may stay closed for months because of extensive damage inflicted by Tropical Storm Hilary last month.
The Los Angeles Times reports that flash flooding from the storm damaged many roads in the park, including Route 190. Route 127, which links with Interstate 15 northeast of Barstow, also is closed.
Death Valley is a common side trip for Route 66 travelers, especially foreigners.
The newspaper reported:
Among the damaged areas is a 1,500-foot stretch of roadway near Towne Pass that “washed away,” said Christopher Andriessen, a spokesman with the California Department of Transportation, District 9.
East of Towne Pass, a 40-foot-wide Arizona Crossing — a type of culvert — is gone, as are multiple swaths of pavement between Death Valley Junction and Olancha, Andriessen said, including some as long as 300 feet. As a result, hotels and campgrounds are closed for the foreseeable future.
The estimated cost of repairs is so far about $6 million, but that includes only State Route 190 and a small part of State Route 136, Andriessen said. Only about 900 of the park’s nearly 1,400 miles of roadways have so far been assessed.
A total of 2.2 inches of rain fell in the park on Aug. 20, which broke last year’s record of 1.7 inches in a single day. It doesn’t sound like much, but any sort of precipitation in the area has a magnified effect because water won’t soak into the rocky terrain.
Caltrans stated it hoped to reopen Route 190 in three months, though the timeframe for repairs to federally managed roads remained uncertain.
(Image of Death Valley National Park entrance by Jasperdo via Flickr)