There will be three major road improvement projects in Yellowstone National Park beginning this year. All three projects will cause major delays. They include the Lewis River Bridge, Old Faithful to West Thumb and Yellowstone River Bridge and two of the projects, Old Faithful to West Thumb and Lewis River Bridge, will have overnight closures.
The Park Service decided to conduct the Old Faithful to West Thumb and Lewis River Bridge projects simultaneously to complete both in the same two-year time window. Otherwise, impacts to visitors would have occurred over four to five years.
Superintendent Cam Sholly says, “While we always strive to execute projects in the least impacting way, the Old Faithful to West Thumb and Lewis River Bridge projects will seriously disrupt travel entering and exiting the park’s south entrance and visitors should plan accordingly.”
In 2018, Yellowstone reported a conservative backlog estimate exceeding $586 million, more than half of which is related to park roads. With the completion of these three projects, the park will reduce its deferred maintenance backlog by about $103 million.
