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Mono County road crews opening what they can for the big day |
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Friday, 24 April 2009 |
Goal is to have roads open for fishing opener
By Stacey Powells
Mammoth Times Staff Writer
 Yosemite plows will start working to open Tioga Pass from the west on April 20. photo submitted by yosemite national park
Assistant Public Works Director Jeff Walters said that as far as Tioga Pass goes, Caltrans has begun to clear the road.
“The Lee Vining Caltrans crew has begun blasting on some of the problem shoot areas,” Walters said. “As far as I know they are working only on this side of the pass. Presumably around the Green Bridge area.”
Walters said they are continuing to make inquiries to see what they can do to assist with the opening of Tioga Pass.
“All indications are that theoretically, everything seems to be on track for an opening of the pass earlier than Memorial Day weekend,” Walters stated.
Erik Skindrud is with Media Relations for Yosemite National Park and told the Times they are scheduled to start plowing State Highway 120 from their side on April 20.
“The crews will proceed as safely as they can,” Skindrud said. “They take it one segment at a time because there are segments of the road that are very dangerous.”
Skindrud said that they do not have a finish target date. “When the job is done, it’s done, but we hope to have it completed by the Memorial Day weekend, but there are no promises.”
Public Works has been plowing the road to Virginia Lakes and even though it is almost finished they will not open the road before April 25.
A rock slide in the vicinity of Lundy Lake dam has pushed the opening of that road back a few weeks.
“We now have a lot of clean up to do,” Walters said. “As soon as the weather warms up, we will continue working on the Lundy Lake road, but the damage done by the rock slide is very disappointing.”
Public Works has started on the road to Upper Rock Creek and the roads to Convict Lake and McGee Creek are all open.
“One of our biggest goals is to get the roads open that go up to the lakes before the fishing opener,” Walters said. “As long as we don’t have any big snowstorms we should be able to meet those goals.” |
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Last Updated ( Thursday, 30 April 2009 )
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