YOSEMITE – The National Park Service has announced plans to rehabilitate, restore and resurface approximately 41 miles of the Tioga Road.
The Tioga Road, bounded on both sides by State Highway 120, and open seasonally, is a popular east-west crossing of the Sierra Nevada.The rehabilitation project focuses on improving the safety of visitors and employees traveling on Tioga Road, maintaining the character of the road corridor, and restoring drainage features to control erosion.
Additionally, roadside turnouts will be redesigned which will help manage roadside parking and traffic flow. The rehabilitation will also help reduce rockfall potential along the Tioga Road by scaling rock at select locations. There will also be improvements at the parking area of the Tuolumne Grove.
A public scoping period for the Tioga Road Rehabilitation Plan took place from Feb. 4, through Mar. 5, 2010. Work is anticipated to begin in Spring 2014 and will occur in three phases as funding is available. Each phase will take place over a two year period due to the seasonal closure of the Tioga Road.
The Environmental Assessment (EA) was released for public review on Aug. 8, 2011, and comments were accepted through Sept. 8, 2011. The park received 12 public comment letters. All comments were reviewed by park staff and were considered in the development of the Finding of No Significant Impact (FONSI) and errata sheets.
Requests for hardcopies of the FONSI, can be submitted to: Superintendent, Yosemite National Park, Attn: Tioga Road Rehabilitation Plan, P.O. Box 577, Yosemite, CA 95389; or fax (209) 379-1294; or email yose_planning@nps.gov. The FONSI, EA, and errata sheets are available online at: http://www.parkplanning.nps.gov/tiogaroad.
