Snow May ‘Hold’ Cars on ‘Open’ Tahoe Road

To appease tourist-conscious business owners, the term “closure” will no longer be used to describe snowy Sierra Nevada roads that are shut temporarily to traffic, a state Transportation Department official said Thursday.

Starting when the season’s first snowstorm, car accident, avalanche or other tourist-inhibiting road delay “closes” U.S. 50 to Tahoe, the department will report that it is “holding traffic.”

John Qualls, the department’s regional director in South Lake Tahoe, said that as long as he can predict when a road can be reopened, he has no problem with changing the terminology.

“If we see an end in sight . . . if we see an estimated hold of traffic for two, four, six hours, we’ll use ‘holding traffic,’ ” Qualls said. “My foremen have to quit talking about the road being closed. We can do that without a lot of effort.”

That’s music to the dollar-conscious ears of South Lake Tahoe business owners, who have been lobbying department officials for years to stop broadcasting through the media and telephone hot lines the term “road closure” when the shutdown is for only a few hours.

“The big deal with the terminology has to do with people’s behavior,” said Bill Killebrew, owner of Heavenly Valley Ski Resort. “When they just get the word the road is closed, they will never leave their home. If the people knew the road would be reopened, they’re not going to give up their vacations.”

However, the term “road closure” will be used when absolutely necessary, Qualls said, such as when there is poor visibility and when the time of clearing cannot be estimated.