Weary roads in the National Park System stand to benefit from the federal transportation bill passed last week, as it carries an 18 percent increase in funding for the National Park Service, according to the National Parks Conservation Association.
The bill, Fixing America's Surface Transportation Act, aka FAST, boosts the Park Service's annual appropriation for road repairs and transportation systems from $240 million, to $268 million during Fiscal 2016, a dollar figure that will steadily increase to $300 million annually by 2020.
“Yellowstone, Great Smoky Mountains and so many national parks need substantial funding to maintain and improve their roadways. This bill takes a major step forward toward repairing important roads, bridges, and transit systems to ensure visitors can enjoy national parks with their families for years to come,” said Laura Loomis, NPCA’s deputy vice president of government affairs. “Congress is heading in the right direction toward addressing the costly backlog of road projects.”
Under provisions of the FAST Act, the National Park Service will receive an additional $220 million over the span of the five-year bill, NPCA noted.
Additionally, the legislation authorizes up to $100 million annually for the Nationally Significant Federal Lands and Tribal Projects Program designed to address exceptionally large repair projects, such as replacement of the Grand Loop Road in Yellowstone National Park.
The National Park Service manages about 10,000 miles of roadways. One of the longest stretches of roadway in the park system is the 469-mile Blue Ridge Parkway, connecting Great Smoky Mountains National Park in North Carolina and Shenandoah National Park in Virginia. The Blue Ridge Parkway, a critical corridor for tourists and commuters, was the second-most visited national park in the country in 2014 and generated $1.2 billion in economic output for the national economy which supported 14,000 private-sector jobs.
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Comments
We are full time RVer's and travel to many National Parks. My wife and I have traveled over 100,000 miles, we have stayed at National Parks, State Parks, and Federal Parks (TVA Camp Grounds) Many Military Campgrounds. All these parks need money for repairs and all these parks are important to our nation along with our National Forest.