Re: What's up with El Portal Road?

On the Yosemite Current Conditions page most of the roads are listed as "Open", Mariposa Grove Road is "Closed", and then there's this:

Quote

El Portal Road
(continuation of Highway 140 from Merced) Call

Anyone happen to know what that's about? I'm supposed to be out there next week and 140 is how I was planning to get in and out of the park.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 10/17/2015 10:14PM by gophersnake.

That might be because of the Ferguson slide area that is being worked on. http://www.dot.ca.gov/dist10/environmental/projects/fergusonslide/

It seems to be an inside-the-park issue. Only the NPS site mentions it. Caltrans Road Conditions doesn't say anything about the Ferguson Slide bypass except what they've been saying for years:

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VEHICLES OVER 45 FEET ARE PROHIBITED & 1-WAY CONTROLLED TRAFFIC FOR ALL
OTHER VEHICLES 20 MI EAST OF MARIPOSA (MARIPOSA CO) 24 HRS A DAY 7 DAYS A WEEK
- DUE TO SLIDE REPAIRS

The contractor started hauling away truckloads of debris from the Ferguson Slide area this spring. They were interleaving their truck traffic with the other traffic pretty smoothly. After a month or so, all work appeared to stop and the site has looked pretty much deserted ever since. I haven't seen a word about it online but the word circulating among the regular YARTS passengers is that the engineers didn't find bedrock where they expected it, so they don't know what they're going to anchor the rockshed-thingie to. The project seems to have gone back to the drawing board for now.

It was going to be a nail-biter anyway, whether the temporary bridges would stand up till the rockshed was ready to use. Neither the delay nor the coming El Niño is going to help matters any.

I did some searching and found this on the NPS Yosemite site under park alerts. It appears to be a older alert since this project was announced in 2006 but there was a delay in it's implementation. I am not sure if this is what is going on so I guess you will have to call for information.

ww.nps.gov/yose/learn/management/eproad.htm

El Portal Road (Highway 140 from Merced)
CLOSED west of Yosemite Valley 10 pm to 6 am (beginning Dec. 9) Sunday nights through Thursday nights

Big Oak Flat Road (Highway 120 from Manteca)
CLOSED west of Yosemite Valley 10 pm to 6 am (beginning Dec. 9) Sunday nights through Thursday nights
30-minute delays at other times


I am still not comfortable with the rock shed idea.



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 10/17/2015 11:51PM by parklover.

I found that too, but those closures aren't supposed to happen till December.

I wonder if NPS could be anticipating more rock/mud slides in the Dog Rock area in response to the recent rain showers.

That is a possibility if the park gets heavy rains.