Rebuilding Glacier Point Road in Yosemite With Great American Outdoors Act Funds

Glacier Point Road construction. NPS/Matthew Outhier.

Yosemite National Park is repairing a 10-mile stretch of Glacier Point Road, between Badger Pass and Glacier Point, with money from the Great American Outdoors Act (GAOA). The road's last major maintenance was about 1980.

Why this road

Built in 1933, Glacier Point Road is one of Yosemite's five major roads and the only way to drive to Glacier Point, Washburn Point, Bridalveil Creek Campground, the communication facilities at Sentinel Dome, and major trailheads into the south-central park. It includes three of the park's most accident-prone road segments and one of its most accident-prone intersections. Buses used to cut car traffic at busy times help, but wear the road as much as 5,000 cars.

The project at a glance

Dates and costs are estimates and may change.

What it will do

• replace failed drainage structures and stabilise slides and eroded slopes;
• formalise or remove some pull-outs, for safety and to protect park resources;
• install curbing west of Washburn Point to stop roadside parking that spills into the travel lanes where shoulders are too narrow;
• pave ditches to carry rain and snowmelt;
• handle the expected growth in daily traffic, and strengthen the pavement for RVs and park buses;
• eliminate more than $39 million of deferred maintenance and repairs;
• add two accessible double vault toilets at the Sentinel Dome parking area and improve access for people with disabilities;
• expand three busy parking areas, with better interpretive displays and clear routes to trails and viewpoints;
• rehabilitate Bridalveil Creek Campground; coordinating with the campground's own GAOA project, including its water lines under the road, avoids an extra year of campground closure and another road closure.

The result should be safer, more enjoyable trips to one of the most scenic views in the National Park System, and a road built to last.

Construction equipment on Glacier Point Road. NPS/Matthew Outhier.

Status (at the time of writing): the contractor was building drainage structures and walls, including at Clarks Range View Overlook.

Sources

• National Park Service, Yosemite National Park, "Glacier Point Road in Yosemite National Park to be Rehabilitated through GAOA Funding." https://www.nps.gov/articles/000/gaoa-glacier-point-road.htm