Challenges on Copper Creek Road

Copper Creek Road made a return as a topic at the Lincoln Government Day meeting Friday, Feb. 4.

The discussions revolved around both the status of the snowmobile parking area and the future of the road's paved surface.

This year, faced with budget limitations as well as a desire to help get more snowmobilers into town, the Snow Warriors have backed off plowing the parking area that is often used by visiting snowmobilers to access the Copper Bowls.

Eric Griffin, Lewis and Clark County Public Works director, said even when the parking area isn't being plowed people go to Copper Creek Road with large trailers and often get stuck alongside the road, or in the parking areas as they try to turn around.

"We're up there pulling them out. We all have to work together with the Forest Service and the Snow Warriors," he said.

The trucks and trailers parked along the road also present issues for county road crews who plow the road.

Lincoln District Ranger Rob Gump said a Forest Service crew went up at the end of January and pushed the berms back at the parking areas to open them up for the trucks and trailers.

"I don't know that we can, without some funds coming in, keep up with it," he said. "It can look great one day, but a decent long wind event can change how it looks."

Gump said he talked to County Road and Bridge Supervisor Kevin Horne and Ponderosa Snow Warriors President Forest Mercill recently about finding possible funding sources to help with the cost of the plowing. He expects to get together with them again soon for another look into what they might be able to do for funding.

Beneath the snow on Copper Creek Road lies another problem: 2.8 miles of decaying asphalt. Although the road up to Landers Fork Bridge is part of the Forest Service system, it is maintained by Lewis and Clark County. In 2012, the county received $425,000 through the Federal Forest Highway Program to remove the then-40-year-old asphalt and resurface the road as gravel. However, community members who either lived in the Cooper Creek/Landers Fork area or who used the road regularly were vocal in their concerns about dust and washboarding issues. In 2013, the county scrapped the plan. Since then, the road, which sees large potholes and considerable "alligator" cracking from the deteriorating subgrade, has been repeatedly cold-patched every year.

Gump said the Ranger District put in for funding through the Great American Outdoors Act to repave the road up to and possibly beyond the bridge but haven't yet had any word on the request. Although Gump is optimistic that the funding will come through, he said if it doesn't the backup plan is to take it back to gravel, given the condition of the asphalt and the cost of patching it every year.

"This is kind of our last effort to find some funds that are fairly significant to repave it," Gump said.

Griffin, who mentioned the county still has a set of plans for that ready to go, suggested that once the Forest Service makes a funding decision, Gump should run it through the community council and have the discussion with them to bring it forward.