Arches National Park has released a draft Transportation Implementation Plan and Environmental Assessment for public review. “As the popularity of Arches National Park grows, we are working to update our transportation system to enhance visitor experiences and manage twenty-first century levels of use," commented Superintendent Laura Joss. “While the plan focuses on the needs of the park, we hope the potential solutions will also benefit the City of Moab and vicinity."
The alternatives portion of this plan describes a range of actions such as improvements to parking areas and roadside pulloffs, traffic calming treatments, concession-operated motorized interpretive tours, and intelligent transportation system applications. The NPS also proposes to continue to pursue partnerships with local and regional interests, and employ various visitation and congestion management strategies. These actions are needed to manage the quality of visitor experiences at many popular attractions in the park. The accompanying Environmental Assessment sections evaluate the alternatives in terms of potential resource and socioeconomic impacts.
ArchesNational Park welcomes public review and comments during the public comment period from September 18 through Oct. 18, 2006.
To facilitate public comment, the National Park Service will hold two public open houses at the Arches National Park Visitor Center on Thursday Sept. 21, 2006 from 2:00-4:00 p.m. and 5:00-6:30 p.m.
Printed copies will be available for review at the following public locations:
Grand CountyPublic Library (Moab, UT), Moab Information Center, Arches National Park Visitor Center, NPS Southeast Utah Group Headquarters (Moab, UT)
The document is also available in electronic format on the internet at https://parkplanning.nps.gov or on compact disk by request from Project Leader Pat Sacks at (303) 969-2431 or via email.
If you wish to comment on the Transportation Implementation Plan and Environmental Assessment you may submit comments to:
Arches National Park
Attn: Transportation Implementation Plan
PO Box 907
Moab, UT 84532
https://parkplanning.nps.gov.
Source: U.S. Department of the Interior, National Park Service
