8/18/98

Good news and bad news for merchants along the 140 Yosemite Corridor:

The Good News?
Thanks to a $179 million Congressional appropriation in 1997, repairs to the flood-damaged Highway 140/El Portal Road corridor are slated to begin October 1.

The Bad News?
The road repairs mean this middle corridor to Yosemite will be open only for brief windows in the early morning, late afternoon and sporadically during the day. These on & off closures could last for up to 2 years. Weekends should be unaffected.

The Project:
7 miles of the roadway from Yosemite's Highway 140 entrance to the edge of Yosemite Valley will have to be rebuilt from the bottom up. This section hugs the Merced River and was devastated by the unprecedented floods of January 1997. Temporary fixes, the National Park Service says, have not held well.

The Problem:
El Portal & Mariposa merchants are concerned that tourists will opt for the 120 (northern) or the 41 (southern) corridors rather than risk construction delays on 140/El Portal Road, the middle corridor.

The Solution:
There probably isn't one. Mariposa County business & tourism officialdom would prefer that repairs be delayed until the off season. Unfortunately the off season is when it rains & snows & repair work is delayed further. The 140 Yosemite Corridor, hugging the Merced River, is both beautiful and historic; unfortunately it's also in for major reconstruction.