Arches Entrance Area Plan Available for Review

April 1, 2001 (NPS): An environmental assessment (EA) on the proposed new visitor center and entrance road at Arches National Park is available for public review and comment.

The National Park Service (NPS) is proposing to build a new, larger visitor center and parking area in the vicinity of the current visitor center, to better accommodate current and future levels of visitation. The park is also proposing to relocate the entrance road, moving the Highway 191 intersection (toward Moab) to a safer location on a straight section of highway. This would increase the length of the entrance road and the queuing capacity, alleviating the problem of lines of cars extending back to the highway.

The current visitor center was built in 1959. Since then, annual park visitation has increased from 60,000 to over 800,000, resulting in crowding, long waits at the information desk, and difficulty finding parking spaces, particularly during popular times. The current visitor center has inadequate space for visitors, exhibits, offices and administrative functions.

Traffic on U.S Highway 191 has multiplied as well since the construction of the current park entrance road. The current intersection between the entrance road and the highway is on a curve at the base of a long hill, which presents safety hazards. At current park visitation rates, lines of cars waiting to pass through the entrance station sometimes extend back the entire length of the entrance road and on to the highway.

The environmental assessment is available from the Southeast Utah Group office at 2282 South West Resource Boulevard, Moab, and is posted on this Web site. Comments may be submitted to Superintendent Jerry Banta at the same address, or by the Internet at cany_resource_management@nps.gov. The deadline for comments is May 1, 2001.

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