Yellowstone National Park’s East Entrance is scheduled to open May 5 this year, weather permitting, signaling the start of the 2023 season. Considering the challenges of 2022, park staff and leadership are probably hoping for a little more boredom this year and the chance to catch up on a core mission: addressing the maintenance backlog.

That means visitors will need to prepare for delays as they explore the park, thanks to four major construction projects, especially on roads along the park’s southern and northern corridors. The Lewis River Bridge, the road from Old Faithful to West Thumb, Yellowstone River Bridge and Northeast Entrance Road will all be on the list.

“It’s important that visitors plan accordingly for these delays,” the park said in a press release last week. 

Currently, only the park’s North Entrance (Gardiner, Montana) and Northeast Entrance (Silver Gate and Cooke City, Montana) are open to all traffic with no restrictions. However, motorists can only gain access to the park through the North Gate until U.S Highway 212 is plowed to Crandall Road sometime around Memorial Day. Both road corridors were repaired after last year’s historic flood event.

The park has $1 billion in deferred maintenance and repairs. It also has an estimated $54 million in annual routine maintenance requirements. Addressing the maintenance backlog is part of the National Park Service’s core mission to preserve the park and provide a “world-class visitor experience,” the park said.
They understand how important traffic issues are to visitors and decided to do the Old Faithful to West Thumb and Lewis River Bridge projects simultaneously to complete both projects in a three-year window. Otherwise, impacts to visitors would have occurred over four to five years.

The Lewis River Bridge is about 10 miles north of the South Entrance. Park officials said visitors should be prepared for 20-minute delays through 2024. The existing bridge will be removed, and a new bridge will be constructed immediately downstream. The project includes additional parking and viewing opportunities and is estimated to cost $31 million.

Construction on the Grand Loop Road between Old Faithful and West Thumb is expected to force delays of up to 30-minutes through the coming season. The project includes the rehabilitation of 22 miles of the Grand Loop Road between Old Faithful and West Thumb, one of the most heavily traveled road corridors in the park. The park will be repaving the full 30-foot-wide roadway segment, which was last repaved in 1987 and has “deteriorated due to heavy usage and winter weather conditions,” the park said. Additionally, guardrails, culverts and other drainage structures will be replaced to enhance visitor safety.

This project will cost $43 million.

Beginning summer 2023 until fall 2026, park officials said visitors should “expect occasional and short traffic delays” while they replace the Yellowstone River Bridge. The Northeast Entrance Road will remain open for year-round access to wheeled vehicles, but hiking trails in the area may temporarily close during the duration of the project.

The project includes the replacement of the 60-year-old bridge, which has been deemed “structurally insufficient.” A new 1,285-foot-long, 175-foot-high steel girder bridge upstream will replace the existing 604-foot-long bridge to preserve year-round access to/from the Northeast Entrance and communities of Silver Gate and Cooke City, Montana. New pullouts, paved parking areas, and dedicated routes across the new bridge will increase access to trails, fishing and viewpoints and the Yellowstone River Picnic Area will be enlarged to accommodate increased visitor use. The project will cost about $118 million.

The three projects will be funded by the National Parks and Public Lands Legacy Restoration Fund, which was established by the Great American Outdoors Act and provides the National Park Service with up to $1.3 billion each year for five years, or $6.5 billion total. The funds are intended to address extensive and long overdue maintenance needs. It is the largest funding source available to the National Park Service for major maintenance and construction and addresses large-scale projects on a level that could not be met through usual funding sources.

The Northeast Entrance Road will also see improvements for just east of Tower Junction between Lamar Canyon and the entrance. This project includes the completion of work to address flood-damaged areas of the road between Lamar Canyon and the Northeast Entrance. Construction will include completion of a two-lane realignment in Lamar Canyon, paving a second lift north of the Trout Lake Trailhead, stabilization of streambanks adjacent to the road, work in the Pebble Creek Campground and Warm Creek Picnic Area. Additionally, some guardrails, culverts and other drainage structures will be replaced to enhance visitor safety.

This project costs $25 million and is funded through the Emergency Relief for Federally Owned Roads Fund.