Piles of slash along the Granite Hill Highway near Granite.

The drive from Sumpter to Granite looks different than it did a few months ago.

Feels different, too.

Smoother.

Two separate projects, one involving the highway and one in the forest that borders it, have transformed the trip.

The work is confined to the 9-mile stretch from Blue Springs Summit, west of Sumpter, to Granite.

Crews are repaving the two-lane highway, which is part of the Elkhorn Drive Scenic Byway and also known as the Granite Hill Road. Work started earlier this summer and is scheduled to be finished in November of this year, according to the Federal Highway Administration (FHA).

The cost is $6,328,000.

The Grant County Road Department did some of the work, and the FHA awarded a contract to Marcum and Son LLC of Redmond.

Meanwhile, workers on both sides of the highway have been cutting trees and stacking the limbs into piles that will be burned, possibly starting in late 2023.

The thinning work is part of the Ten Cent project, which includes sections of the Wallowa-Whitman and Umatilla national forests, said Kendall Cikanek, ranger for the Wallowa-Whitman’s Whitman District.

The Ten Cent project dates to 2017. It includes 23,990 acres on the Umatilla National Forest, and 13,810 acres on the Wallowa-Whitman.

Its chief goal is to reduce the risk of wildfires spreading rapidly by creating fuelbreaks, particularly along roads. These “defensible spaces” are areas where flames are less likely to climb into the crowns of trees, and where fire crews can concentrate their efforts to stop a blaze.

Cikanek said the strategy is similar to what the Forest Service has employed in the East Face project along the Elkhorn Mountains from near the Anthony Lakes Highway north to the La Grande area.

Crews have already thinned the forest along the highway leading to Anthony Lakes Mountain Resort. The resulting piles of slash will be burned later.

The piles have to dry for a year or more to ensure they will burn rather than smolder, Cikanek said.

Repaving the road

This federal project stems from a 2016 application through the Oregon Federal Lands Access Program through the Federal Highway Administration.

The federal agency describes Granite Hill Road as a “rural major collector that provides access to numerous recreation sites in and around the Wallowa-Whitman and the Umatilla National Forest. It is also provides access to the residents of Granite. The road is deteriorating, primarily in the shoulders. This project includes rehabilitation of 9.3 miles of the road from the Grant County line to Granite. It will also include spot base repair, updated signs, culverts, as well as other work.”

The Federal Highway Administration has also allocated $5.7 million for a second project along the highway, slated for fiscal year 2024, that includes installing three box culverts and two fish passage structures.