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RESPITE EXPECTED Cody-to-park trip to be free of construction By MICHAEL MILSTEIN Gazette Wyoming Bureau CODY, Wyo. - Travelers who have become accustomed to road construction delays between Cody and Yellowstone National Park in recent years will enjoy a temporary respite this summer. Paving should wrap up by July 1 on the section of the North Fork Highway now under construction, leaving the rest of the summer construction-free, officials said. Work will begin on a small section of Yellowstone National Park's east entrance road near Fishing Bridge junction, but should not interfere with traffic as much as past construction in the park. "There are no hills or walls or major passes to contend with, so it should not be too disruptive," said Paul Hoffman, executive of the Cody Country Chamber of Commerce. While extensive construction between Yellowstone and Cody originally led to much greater declines in visitation than local tourism boosters had expected, they now hope that with about half of the planned construction finished, tourism declines have bottomed out and visits will start to recover, Hoffman said. "I believe the benefits of the new roads are beginning to outweigh the negatives of road construction," he said. "That should bode well for us this summer." A North Fork lodge owner said, though, that it may take years for business to recover from the the construction. "We had people who would come every year in the fall, and they just quit coming," said Keith Dahlem, owner of Shoshone Lodge near Yellowstone's east gate. "That's going to be a long-term effect. I don't know how long it will take for that to get back to the way it was." He said the effects of the construction have been compounded by continuing improvements to and expansion of lodging facilities inside Yellowstone, which have drawn business away from small lodges and motels outside the park. "The park's in competition with us now, and they're keeping their facilities open longer and longer," Dahlem said. Construction has been ongoing in recent years to rebuild Yellowstone National Park's 27-mile east entrance road and the 28 miles of U.S. Highway 14-16-20, the North Fork Highway, through the Shoshone National Forest between Yellowstone Park and Cody. About 18 miles of each section should be rebuilt by the beginning of this summer. "We still do have a ways to go, but I'm hopeful that things will better from here," Hoffman said. The only segment of road now under construction lies on U.S. Highway 14-16-20 just west of the Shoshone National Forest boundary. Work began there last spring, and local tourism officials agreed to nighttime closures last summer and during the winter so contractor Morrison Knudsen could operate its heavy equipment without worrying about passing traffic. That and a mild winter allowed the contractor's crews to push ahead of schedule so that while plans called for construction to continue through the summer, they should actually begin paving in mid-June and complete paving by the end of June. Some landscaping and guardrail work would remain, but could proceed without any further traffic delays. Construction would not begin on the remaining nine-mile Palisades section of the North Fork Highway until 2000. It's possible that the Wyoming Department of Transportation might award contracts for some bridge-building on that section of road this summer, but the bridge work would not interrupt traffic. Work will begin this spring inside Yellowstone on a roughly two-mile section of the park's east entrance road between Pelican Bridge and Fishing Bridge, which could cause traffic delays of up to 30 minutes. From July 6 to Sept. 6, the east entrance road will be closed at night and open only from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m., with up to 30-minute delays. From Sept. 7 to Oct. 3, the road will be open throughout each weekend but during the week will be open only during two periods each day: from 6 a.m. to 10 a.m. and from 6 p.m. to 10 p.m., with delays of up to 30 minutes. On Oct. 4, about a month earlier than usual, the east entrance road will close for the season so crews can begin replacing the surface of Fishing Bridge with asphalt tiles. It would be nearly impossible for that work to proceed with traffic passing over the bridge, so officials decided to close the road a month early to allow uninterrupted construction. Crews will also use that time to remove some rock along the east entrance road east of Sylvan Pass in preparation for reconstruction of that section expected to begin about 2002. The rock will be used as riprap to bolster the east entrance road where it runs along the shore of Yellowstone Lake.
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