With the combination of last weekend’s snow and wind followed immediately by warming temperatures, two trees fell down on the Zarembo Island causeway. The wooden walkway runs onshore out to the dock. Zarembo Island is uninhabited and located near Wrangell and Petersburg. Hunters and recreationists use it often.
Austin O’Brien, Wrangell’s Timber Staff Officer with the U.S. Forest Service, said the incident took out at least 20 feet of the causeway, leaving it completely destroyed and unsafe.
“There’s no way around it or across it at this point,” he said. “We’re actually in the process of issuing a closure order there, and then we’ll be marking it off on both ends, just so people don’t accidentally go across it or something.”
A winter storm two years ago damaged the Zarembo Island dock and disconnected it from the gangplank, or moveable bridge.
“Unfortunately, we had a bunch of work completed on both the dock and that causeway last summer,” O’Brien said. “That was part of a contract that we had done. I guess the good thing is that it happened after deer season, but unfortunately, it’s going to be out of commission.”
The U.S. Forest Service hired a contractor who completed repairing the dock in July of this year. In addition, they installed a new aluminum ramp and new decking and handrails on the 100-feet long causeway.
The entire area will be closed off
O’Brien said the walkway between the dock and the shore has the most damage. The dock itself wasn’t affected but the closure order will cover everything.
A nearby drive-down ramp is also currently blocked by the trees that fell down. O’Brien said the Forest Service will hopefully get out to the site today to assess the feasibility of clearing the trees.
“We’re going to have to get an engineering evaluation,” he said. “After a tree strike like that, we really need to take a look at the whole structure. We just don’t know the extent of the damage.”
As of now, he doesn’t know when the causeway, dock, or ramp will be usable.
