WSDOT spokesman Bart Treece stands near a portion of Lower River Road that has been eroded by the Columbia River. After gating the road a little past Milepost 10 west of Frenchman's Bar in Vancouver last summer, WSDOT plans to transfer it to Clark County. (Steve Dipaola for the Columbian)Photo Gallery
Although officials blocked the final mile and a third of state Highway 501 in July, it doesn’t mean the old highway’s saga is at the end of its road.
Recently, the Washington Department of Transportation said in a letter to Clark County that it is releasing its control of a portion of the highway, also known as Lower River Road, and giving it to Clark County.
WSDOT spokesperson Bart Treece said although the road has been blocked to traffic, it still requires funding for maintenance, and that money could be better spent elsewhere.
“We’re not maintaining a road that goes nowhere,” he said.
Clark County Public Works Director Heath Henderson said WSDOT brought the idea to the county last year.
Henderson said the county isn’t enthusiastic about owning or repairing a crumbling old highway, but the road will be valuable from a long-term planning perspective. Beneath the roadbed, a roughly four-decade-old outfall pipe runs from the wastewater treatment plant in Salmon Creek to the Columbia River. The county wants to replace it in about five years, and owning the road could make that process go smoother.
“As we move along, we’re going to need an easement through some of that land and SR 501,” Henderson said. “Part of the thinking is, if the county has that road, we have a little more flexibility when that easement is needed and as we move that project forward.”
Beyond the easement, which the county hopes to have figured out in the next two years, it doesn’t have much use for the highway. The road is public property, but after the easement is in place, the county plans to vacate the road to adjacent private property owners. Henderson said he was aware of old discussions to build a walking trail up to the Ridgefield Wildlife Refuge, and the county might be able to secure a small easement for it in the future. But there’s a lot of work to do between then and now.
“We just got the letter from the state a couple weeks ago that this was going to go forward,” Henderson said. “We’re in the very early process of getting our arms around what we’re going to need to go through.”
WSDOT installed a gate in early 2014 at Milepost 10 on Lower River Road then decided to close it permanently last year when shoreline erosion made the road unsafe to travel.
The mile beyond the gate has been closed to drivers ever since, but has been popular with cyclists and bird watchers. The final third of a mile beyond was totally blocked off because WSDOT officials didn’t want anyone getting too close to the 15- to 20-foot sheer drop-off at the end.
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