On Friday’s (October 14) Up Close Show, Joshua Tree National Park Superintendent David Smith provided Gary Daigneault with an update about the Park’s new West entrance. Smith explained that the entrance would help mitigate crowding at the entrance in Joshua Tree, and ensure that park rangers spend less time selling tickets to eager Park visitors. Smith said that funding for the new construction has been raised, entirely through entrance fees, but that contracting for the project has proved to be the most serious delay.
“We had an open bid on Wednesday (October 12) this week, and we had about 20 to 25 contractors that came out to bid on the project. So hopefully we are going to get a reasonable bid and start construction by the end of the year.”
When asked how this new construction would alleviate traffic at the Park, Smith said
“We are moving the entrance inside of the park. So folks that live right on the boundary of the park, their lives have gotten hellish over the last few years. They can’t get out of their driveways. It’s become a safety issue. So we’re moving the entrance station into the park about a third of a mile so that the wait that’s always there will disappear but we’re also putting in four entrance station’s there.
To hear the full interview with Superintendent Smith, you can listen to the Up Close Show as a podcast right here:
