Engaging video shows annual snow removal along Sierra Nevada passes. When do routes open?
It’s that time of year again — the great snow-clearing effort to get Central Sierra Nevada passes open again after a wet winter.
Caltrans District 9 maintenance crews working Highway 108 in Mono County were within four miles of Sonora Pass, the transportation agency reported Monday. Once they reach the summit, workers will continue removing ice and snow from the roadway until they meet their District 10 counterparts on the west side.
Caltrans reported working with a thick layer of ice on top of the pavement.
Crews are also clearing snow from Highway 120 West and the Tioga Pass, nearly reaching Saddlebag Lake Road near the eastern entrance to Yosemite National Park.
“Crews are utilizing a grader and a bulldozer to push the snow into manageable piles for the blower to remove it from the road,” Caltrans District 9 said in a post on Instagram.
Caltrans typically tries to open Ebbetts Pass on Highway 4 in Alpine County and Sonora Pass, by Memorial Day, but it’s too early to project any opening dates, Brian Hooker of Caltrans District 10 told The Union-Democrat newspaper.
Crews will try to work 10 hours a day, seven days a week to reopen Sonora Pass, Hooker said.
The passes will likely open sooner than last year, when epic snow conditions and road damage prevented clear sailing until June.
Ebbetts Pass, with an elevation of 8,730 feet along Highway 4, and Sonora Pass, 9,624 feet above sea level along Highway 108, have been closed to the public since late November.
Tioga Pass is the tallest of the routes at 9,945 feet on Highway 120.
