Yellowstone plans trio of big road projects next year

Posted 10/31/19

Folks planning to visit Yellowstone National Park in 2020 should be aware of three major road construction projects that will force detours or slow down traffic.

One project will result in a …

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Yellowstone plans trio of big road projects next year

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Folks planning to visit Yellowstone National Park in 2020 should be aware of three major road construction projects that will force detours or slow down traffic.

One project will result in a complete closure of the road between Tower Fall and Chittenden Road — preventing park visitors from traveling directly from Canyon Village to the Tower Roosevelt area. The work will take roughly two years to complete, meaning the road won’t reopen to vehicles until the spring of 2022.

Meanwhile, Yellowstone visitors can expect delays at the park’s North Entrance and, on the eastern end of the park, between Fishing Bridge and Indian Pond.

“Our staff does an amazing job planning and implementing these road projects to maximize improvements while minimizing the impacts to visitors and gateway communities,” Yellowstone Superintendent Cam Sholly said in a Tuesday news release detailing the road work. “These construction projects are critical to improving safety, access, and visitor experience along Yellowstone’s roads.”

Yellowstone officials said that the Park Service plans to spend $75 million on the road projects next year, including $22 million to finish a viaduct east of Fishing Bridge. However, a park spokeswoman declined to release any specific cost estimates for the work at the North Entrance and on the Tower Fall-Chittenden Road area.

“We cannot share those publicly because the projects haven’t gone out for bid yet,” Yellowstone spokeswoman Morgan Warthin explained, adding that releasing the estimates “would compromise the bidding process.”

In the release, Park Service officials said addressing their backlog of deferred maintenance projects is part of the agency’s “core mission to preserve national parks and provide a world-class visitor experience.” In 2018, Yellowstone conservatively estimated that it had $586 million worth of deferred projects — more than half of that related to park roads. When these three road projects are finished, the park will reduce its backlog by at least $50 million, the release said.

The most significant project is the work between Tower Fall and Chittenden Road, which is near Mount Washburn.

“This 6-mile segment of road remains largely unchanged since the last improvements in the 1930s,” park officials said in a news release. “This construction project will widen the road and provide additional/improved pullouts; create a larger, safer parking area at Tower Fall General Store; and improve the trail and overlook for Tower Fall.”

Some of the funding for the project is coming from a more than $27.8 million grant from the Nationally Significant Federal Lands Program, overseen by the U.S. Department of Transportation’s Federal Highway Administration. Yellowstone officials plan to match the DOT funding with dollars collected from the park’s entrance fees.

While the road between Tower Fall and Chittenden Road will be completely closed until April 2022, spots on each side of the project — like the Tower Fall area and the Chittenden Road itself — will generally be open during the peak months of June through August.

Meanwhile, crews are set to spend next summer finishing a multi-year effort to upgrade the route through the Fishing Bridge area. Travelers can expect delays throughout the 2020 summer season.

Construction workers will replace an earthen causeway that crosses the Pelican Creek area — originally constructed in 1902 — with a new, quarter-mile viaduct; the structure will restore acres of wetland and allow the creek to flow freely again. Crews will also “put the finishing touches” on work that started in 2018 to improve the deck, piers, and abutment of Fishing Bridge; add turn lanes to the facilities at Fishing Bridge; expand and improve the parking area east of the General Store; and widen the road and add/improve pullouts. Funding for the project is coming from the Federal Highways Administration.

The total project is expected to cost around $41.3 million, Warthin said.

Additional delays are expected at the North Entrance. The Park Service says that the gate “is not equipped to meet the challenges of increasing visitation and traffic,” so, starting in early summer 2020 and continuing over a period of two years, crews will add a new lane and kiosk to improve the flow of traffic and reduce lines, replace two buildings with one larger building/station and two kiosks, and make other improvements to the flow of foot and vehicle traffic.

Funding is coming from the Federal Highways Administration, Yellowstone Forever, the National Park Foundation and fees collected in the park.

Delays are something of a necessity in Yellowstone: Park officials noted in their release that, with winter weather conditions possible half the year, crews can generally only work on roads and bridges from April through early November.

The park did complete a major project this year, wrapping up the second phase of improvements to the road between Norris and Golden Gate. A total of 4.5 miles of road was widened, with increased and improved pullouts plus a better parking lot, trail, and kiosk at Obsidian Cliff. The third and final phase of Norris to Golden Gate is set to begin sometime after the Tower Fall to Chittenden Road section wraps up in 2022.

The park’s Road Construction webpage — located at www.nps.gov/yell/planyourvisit/road-construction.htm — will be updated as more information is available.

(Tribune Editor CJ Baker contributed reporting.)

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