News.bytes Extra, issue 543

Damage Control: Wash Road Repairs Underway

Work continues on Wash Road, more than two weeks after a summer storm damaged its length from Wash 1 – Wash 22.  Maintenance crews expect work to be completed by next week. Photo: BLM/D. Baca

More than two weeks after a summer storm hammered Wash Road and the Glamis Flats area of the Imperial Sand Dunes Recreation Area, work continues to repair the damage it caused.  With the busy dunes season right around the corner, maintenance crews operating heavy equipment are bringing in loads of dirt to fill in road areas that have been washed out, undercut, or pitted with large gaping holes. 

Once repairs to Wash Road are complete, the crew will begin to repair damage incurred to the restrooms at Glamis Flats, where water has eroded the sand from around the foundations of the toilets.  Visitors familiar with the dunes will appreciate the extent of the storm; it was water from Wash 1 that flooded the area.  Maintenance crews expect work in the dunes to be complete by next week.

Visitors are asked to drive carefully in the affected areas, watch for orange safety cones that signal a hazard, and give maintenance crews the space they need to get the job done.  For more information on the Imperial Sand Dunes, please call the El Centro Field Office at 760-337-4400, or visit our web page at www.blm.gov/ca/isdra.

Water flooding from Wash 1 is what left the toilets at Glamis Flats high and dry, so to speak.  Photo: BLM

- Joya Szalwinski, Interpretive Park Ranger, Imperial Sand Dunes Recreation Area / BLM El Centro Field Office (August 2012)

BLM-California News.bytes, issue 543 -- To subscribe to News.bytes, send an e-mail to: mailto:Join-Newsbytes@List.ca.blm.gov OR visit our News.bytes subscription page.