The National Park Service (NPS) will spend approximately $1 million to improve transportation to and in the country's national parks through construction projects and travel forecasts, the agency announced recently.
The $1.1 million from the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law (BIL) will support projects to improve roads and parking, collaborations with the Department of Transportation, and outreach to underserved communities, the NPS announced Sept. 26.
“How people travel to and in national parks is an important part of their visit and we want it to be as seamless as possible," National Park Service Director Chuck Sams said in the announcement. "President Biden’s Bipartisan Infrastructure Law is not only funding construction projects that improve road conditions, it is enabling us to research and develop techniques and methods that will result in safer and easier access to parks throughout the country."
The NPS and DOT are partnering to develop ways to provide visitors with "comprehensive, reliable, real-time travel information," the NPS states in the announcement. The "travel forecasts" would have parks' current road and parking information and be available online and via the NPS app.
NPS will also work with the DOT's National Roadway Safety Strategy to study ways to avoid crashes and decrease injuries and deaths on park roads, the report states.
"The NPS will look at the effectiveness of speed-management strategies already in place at selected entrances to parks throughout the country, where drivers transition from higher-speed roads outside parks to slower-speed, multi-use roads within parks," the statement reports. "The findings and safety strategies shown to be effective in this project will be used to improve safety in national parks and public lands."
Underserved communities will also benefit from the funding, the NPS reports, through wayfinding and transportation information designed to increase access to national parks.
“Not all communities have equal access to transportation to national parks or to the information needed to plan trips to national parks,” the NPS states in the announcement. “For this pilot project, researchers will develop and implement new wayfinding tools for two yet-to-be-named national parks, including maps, printed materials, trip planning information, and signs. Community outreach and input will be a critical part of this project.”
NPS funding through the BIL's Federal Lands Transportation Program is set to increase more than 20 percent by 2026, to approximately $1.7 billion, the park service reports.
