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SALT LAKE CITY (AP) -- Visitors using Zion National Park's east entrance could face delays as long as three hours because of a major road project that will begin in mid-May and possibly last through October.
About 2.7 million people visited the southwestern Utah park in 2009. Park spokesman Ron Terry says about one-third of the park's visitors use the east entrance.
While summer months are the busiest at the park, construction must be done then because of higher temperatures.
The project will cause delays and closures for drivers entering or leaving the park on State Road 9 between the east entrance and U.S. Highway 89 at Mount Carmel Junction.
Terry said a section of highway inside the park known as the "switchbacks," between the junction of Zion Canyon Scenic Drive and the west portal of the Zion-Mount Carmel Scenic Tunnel, will be affected. No work will be done inside the tunnel.
The project will cause delays and closures for drivers entering or leaving the park on State Road 9 between the east entrance and U.S. Highway 89 at Mount Carmel Junction.
Construction will be stopped at dawn and dusk to allow traffic through the affected area.
The length of delays the rest of the day will depend on how much construction is completed at night, Terry said. Visitors using the south entrance, staying at the Zion Lodge or in the town of Springdale, will not be in the construction zone, he said.
The $5 million federally funded project will involve milling and grading the roadway down to its original elevation, compacting the road base, shoring up the historic retaining walls, providing drainage for groundwater and repaving the road.
Bonnie Cher, a spokeswoman for the Cedar City Brian Head Tourism Bureau in neighboring Iron County, said the construction is may prompt more visitors to take alternate routes and boost attendance for the monument's annual Wildflower Festival, July 2-18.
"We're hoping to catch some of the diverted tourists who choose to pass by Cedar Breaks National Monument," she said. "Hopefully they will stop to capture the sights and avoid a three-hour delay. It's a natural route to or from Zion that is sometimes skipped."
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Information from: The Salt Lake Tribune
(Copyright 2010 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)
