OLYMPIC NATIONAL PARK — If and when construction workers begin grinding and repaving Hurricane Ridge Road, they’ll be conducting what’s likely to be the second-largest restoration project inside the park for decades.

“The only larger project would the Elwha project,” park Superintendent Bill Laitner said, “both in acres and dollars.”

Removal of the Elwha River dams is slated to begin in 2007 at a cost of almost $200 million.

The Ridge road project, still to receive final approval, would cost a lot less — between $14 million and $18 million.

It would be funded by the Federal Lands Highway Program and add at least 20 years to the aging road’s lifespan.

Park officials continue to accept public comment on the proposed roadwork, which would include culvert improvements.

Work could begin as early as spring 2005 and take one to three years, causing traffic delays and increased noise at Olympic National Park’s most popular destination.

85-page report

The park has released an 85-page environmental assessment on the proposed road rehabilitation. The preferred alternative is to stabilize the roadbed and repave the entire 17.6-mile length.

According to the assessment report, the work would improve road safety and ensure long-term access to an area that annually draws more than 350,000 visitors.

“This is just the time in the life of the road,” Laitner said last week during an interview in his office at park headquarters, less than a mile from where Hurricane Ridge Road begins its nearly one mile ascent in elevation.

“This is the wisest time to spend taxpayer dollars,” Laitner said.