Capitol Lake facilities reopen Wednesday as weather conditions improve
Facilities around Capitol Lake in Olympia reopened at 2 p.m. Wednesday, a day after weather conditions prompted the state to close them.
Reopened facilities include the Heritage Park 5th Avenue walking bridge, the north parking lot off 5th Avenue, and sidewalks around the lake. The Washington state Department of Enterprise Services announced the reopening in a Wednesday news release.
Additionally, the public can once again use Heritage Parks men’s restroom, which was closed due to weekend vandalism.
In a separate news release, the state announced public restrooms at Capitol Campus parks would be open from 7 a.m. to dusk year-round starting Thursday. This schedule replaces the seasonal hours that were previously in place.
The DES said the change would help prevent vandalism as well as safety and sanitation incidents that have frequently occurred after dark.
On Tuesday, the state closed the park’s facilities as heavy rain and strong winds battered the area. Record-breaking king tides also flooded streets in downtown Olympia, causing multiple street closures and traffic delays.
Low barometric pressure caused tides to reach 18.4 feet Tuesday morning, The Olympian previously reported. This beat the previous record of 17.99 feet, which was set in 1987.
By the afternoon, tidal flooding subsided, and the city started reopening previously closed roads. Tides rose again Wednesday morning but not high enough to cause similar flooding.
Weather conditions improved on Wednesday but many Thurston County residents still contended with scattered power outages.
This story was originally published December 28, 2022 at 2:22 PM.
