Washout slows traffic to McCarthy

McCARTHY (AP) -- Traffic on the road to McCarthy has been slowed by a washout at Milepost 40, according to Alaska State Troopers and workers in the remote community in the Wrangell Mountains.

Motorists were making it past the break on Sunday, said JoAnne Woolever at the Kennicott Glacier Lodge. A road crew was working on the spot where the Lakina River cut into the roadway just past the bridge over that stream, she said. Construction was being halted periodically so groups of travelers could make it across.

Troopers reported the washout closed the road early Sunday.

The road to McCarthy is a rough, narrow track that follows the old bed of a railroad built in the early 1900s to haul copper ore from the Kennicott mine to Cordova. Old spikes that keep rising to the surface make the road tough on tires.