PORTLAND, Ore. — Crews will begin work next week to permanently repair and reopen at stretch of State Route 504 leading to the Johnston Ridge Observatory at Mount St. Helens, the Washington State Department of Transportation announced Friday. The work is expected to be complete in the fall.
“This is more than a bridge restoration project,” WSDOT Project Engineer Pedro Reyes said in a statement. “It’s about reconnecting people to Mount St. Helens. We’re building a long-term solution that will fully restore safe access and ensure reliability for years to come.”
The visitor center has been closed for nearly three years after a landslide dropped 300,000 cubic yards of debris onto the road, destroying the two-lane Spirit Lake Outlet Bridge on a section of the highway leading up to the ridge…