Local News

Ramsey Creek Road Reclosing

By NCBI
Nov 07, 2012

The temporary closure on Ramsey Creek road, northeast of Winthrop Washington, will be put back in place this week or the week after. The closure is expected to remain in place until the storm-damaged road can be fixed in 2013.

By installing a small temporary culvert at the Pearrygin Creek crossing on Forest Service Road 5009100, the Methow Valley Ranger District was able to temporarily lift the closure, allowing for recreational access to the Ramsey Creek Area during the busy fall season. While installing the culvert made the road passable to motorized traffic in the short term, the temporary culvert needs to be removed before the ground freezes because it cannot accommodate the anticipated higher stream flows in Pearrygin Creek during spring runoff.

Pulling the culvert will close the Ramsey Creek area to motorized access.

"We tried leaving the smaller temporary culvert in place last year and it washed out during spring runoff," said Engineer Dave Colbert. "This caused the creek to temporarily flow outside its current channel; something we'd like to avoid this coming spring."."

"Now that general rifle season is closed and freezing temperatures are in the forecast, it's time to pull the temporary culvert on Pearrygin Creek," said District Ranger Michael Liu. "The plan is to permanently fix the crossing next year with funding from the Emergency Relief for Federally Owned Roads (ERFO) program by installing an adequately sized culvert in 2013.

The crossing was originally damaged by a debris flow that occurred during the spring of 2011.


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