Heavy construction expected on Sun Road's east side
Visitors on Going-to-the-Sun Road will see major changes east of the Divide as Glacier National Park’s $21 million 9-mile construction project there continues this summer.
Crews will continue work from Siyeh Bend to Rising Sun this summer. They’ve already made plenty of progress, according to Jack Gordon, Glacier Park’s landscape architect.
The Wild Goose Island overlook has been reconfigured, with 1,500 feet of the road realigned to the east so viewers don’t have to cross the road to access it. Work on the popular overlook will continue through the summer, and the pullout will be closed to motorists until the work’s completed.
Waste rock from the project will be used for masonry projects on the Sun Road and the Swiftcurrent Bridge in Many Glacier.
Crews spent this spring milling the road surface, so motorists should expect a bit of a rough ride on packed aggregate through the summer. Nine miles of the highway will not be paved this tourist season.
Two slumps near St. Mary have been repaired, and the Rose Creek bridge near Rising Sun has been replaced. The bridge will take on the look and feel of the rest of the highway, with a mortar and stone façade. Anderson Masonry of Bigfork is doing the work. Sun Point serves as a staging area for equipment and will be closed again this summer.
Access to some popular trailheads will also be limited. Crews are working on reconfiguring the trailheads for St. Mary Falls and Gunsight Pass and the pullout at Jackson Glacier Overlook. Parking will be limited, and Gordon urged visitors use the free Park shuttle buses to get to the trailheads.
The St. Mary trailhead has several changes. The stock unloading area is now the main parking lot, with 21 parking spaces. The Sun Road has been reconfigured to eliminate dangerous pullouts.
The Gunsight Pass parking area has also been reconfigured, and a large crowsnest was built to provide better views at the Jackson Glacier Overlook. Another smaller overlook was put in east of the Jackson Glacier Overlook that offers great views of the Mount Jackson.
Crews also constructed rock walkways at the Gunsight and St. Mary trailheads where Park shuttle buses will stop. The new walkways are wide and blend in with the surrounding landscape.
On the west side, Old Man Winter wasn’t kind to the road. A 30-foot section of brand new masonry wall was sheared off by an avalanche and likely will be replaced with a removable railing. Many areas on the west side now have removable guardrails because avalanches continue to destroy the original rock walls.
The east side construction work should wrap up next year. This year will focus on construction and masonry work, next year on paving. The Park will then shift efforts to the last stretch of the Sun Road construction, from West Glacier to Avalanche Creek.
Original plans called for spending $24 million on that work, but the National Park Service only has about $8 million left if no further federal highway dollars are forthcoming. Work on that final section is scheduled to be completed by 2017.