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Road work starts Thursday over the objections of Mariposa County
By Karen McAllister
The Fresno Bee - September 29, 1998
Blasting will begin Thursday as scheduled on El Portal Road now that a federal
judge has ruled against Mariposa County's request to halt repairs of the road
into Yosemite National Park.
U.S. District Judge Anthony W. Ishii said in a ruling Monday that Mariposa
County hadn't met the burden required for a preliminary injunction. In making
his decision, Ishii said he considered the hardships of county businesses
and the interests of the general public.
"It's in the public interest to have the road completed properly and as timed
as possible," Ishii said after a hearing in Fresno's federal court.
Justus C. Spillner, lawyer for Mariposa County, said county supervisors will
decide whether to appeal the judge's decision.
Construction on a 7 1/2-mile section of El Portal Road will repair damage
from the January 1997 floods. The project also will make the road (state Highway
140 into the park) wider, straighter and more accommodating to buses and recreational
vehicles.
Mariposa County wanted the court to require the National Park Service to adhere
to its original construction plan. Under that plan, road work would have lasted
longer but wouldn't have affected local businesses as much, Spillner said.
He told the judge that businesses stand to lose $320 million to $480 million
under the current construction schedule.
As part of the injunction request, Spillner wanted the judge to require the
government to do further environmental studies and obtain more public comment.
Initially, the National Park Service had planned a three-year construction
schedule without road closures during the summer's high tourist season. The
time line was reduced to two years when contractors' bids for the thread year
plan exceeded budget by $15 million, said Assistant U.S. Attorney E. Robert
Wright.
"Quite simply, there wasn't enough money to build the (original) project,"
he said.
Seeking more money from Congress for the three-year schedule would have delayed
the repairs and possibly killed the project outright, he said. In June, the
National Park Service awarded a contract that set a two-year time line and
came closer to the park's budget, Wright said.
In winter months, the road will be open from 6:30 to 8 a.m. and 4:30 to 10:30
p.m., rather than the initial plan to have three open periods during the day.
The road will be closed during summer months from 10:30 p.m. to 6:30 a.m.,
Wright said, as opposed to the previous plan to not close the road at all
during those months. "Nobody in their right mind wants to miss the scenery
and drive at night on the most scenic road in the world," he said.
Hearing about Monday's ruling, a manager at Miners Inn Motel in Mariposa said
she was pleased with the decision, knowing that the work will be finished
sooner. The construction would have cause hardships in the three-year plan
too, Darlene Benson said, because misinformation could have kept tourists
away - even though the roads were open.
But Dolores Cole, manager of Cedar Lodge in Mariposa, saw only the downside
of the two-year plan. She expects the 210-room hotel will lose about $2 million
in the next two years.
"It will have tremendous impact on us," she said. "We'll have to lay people
off, people will lose their jobs. People won't come here because they don't
want to be inconvenienced."
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