From Staff Reports
Yellowstone road closures are planned in connection with various 2012 construction projects running from July to October, including daytime delays of 30 minutes and nighttime closures at spots in the northern half of Yellowstone National Park.
Road and parking lot construction projects in Yellowstone’s Tower Junction and Canyon Village areas are scheduled to begin the first week of July, according to a statement released Monday from the park’s public affairs office.
HK Contractors, Inc., of Idaho Falls, Idaho has been awarded contracts to reconstruct and widen a 2.5-mile stretch of road between Tower Junction and Tower Fall, reconstruct the Canyon Village parking lot and replace the Obsidian Creek Bridge at the Indian Creek Campground.
Work on the Tower Road project will run from early July through the middle of September, with nightly closures from 11:00 p.m. to 7:00 a.m. Motorists should expect 30-minute delays during the day.
From the middle of September until early November, November, the affected section of the road will be closed entirely. Road closure points will be at Tower Junction next to the Roosevelt Corral and just north of Chittenden Road, between Tower and Canyon Village. Overnight visitors in the Tower Fall campground will be allowed entry or exit during closure hours for emergencies only.
During closures, access to Mount Washburn via trail will still be available from the Chittenden Road and Dunraven Pass trailheads.
The Tower Road has not been rebuilt since 1939. The project includes improvement of pullouts, major retaining wall repairs and the addition of ADA-accessible routes to view points along the Calcite Springs overlook.
Work on the main parking area at Canyon Village will occur in four sections — one section at a time – in order to keep day-use parking available in the remaining three sections of the parking area serving the Visitor Education Center, lodge and stores. The entire parking lot (all four sections) will be closed nightly from 11:00 p.m. to 6:00 a.m. All stores will remain open for business during their normal operating hours.
The Canyon Village parking area is 55 years old.
Construction at Obsidian Creek Bridge near Indian Creek Campground will occur after the campground closes for the season September 4. The historic Obsidian Creek Bridge was built in 1911. It is being redesigned to retain the character of the original bridge, while safely accommodating modern recreational vehicles.
The Obsidian Creek Bridge project is expected to be completed by the end of this year.
Work on the Tower and Canyon projects is expected to continue until October 2013.
A complete list of facility and road closures can be found at the National Park Service website.
Updated Yellowstone National Park road information is available 24 hours a day by calling 307-344-2117.
Contact Yellowstone Gate at [email protected].
Still nothing scheduled for repairing the road slump along Yellowstone Lake near Lake Butte where the one-lane traffic light runs ?
The last word I heard on that was last month during National Parks Day in Cody when Yellowstone Superintendent Dan Wenk said the plan was still to address that fix in the fall, although final funding was not yet lined up.
-Ruffin