The plan to build two trails at Pinnacles National Monument with
federal stimulus money has been pulled and replaced with other
improvement projects at the park, the National Park Service
announced recently.
By Daniel Lopez
The plan to build two trails at Pinnacles National Monument with federal stimulus money has been pulled and replaced with other improvement projects at the park, the National Park Service announced recently.
American Recovery and Reinvestment Act funding was approved in 2009 for projects at Pinnacles that included building an overlook trail and connector trail to the West Pinnacles visitor station. The trail construction will not take place because it can’t be completed within the required timeliness of the recovery act, the park service said.
Instead, the park service said, the money will be used to demolish and relocate the maintenance and visitor facilities on the west side of the park, which are prone to flooding, and to demolish and replace two trailers and a tent cabin.
Carl Brenner, chief of instruction and education at Pinnacles, said officials have sought to replace and move the buildings on the park’s west side since the 1990s. They sit in the floodplain and have been damaged several times.
About 30 percent of the visitors to Pinnacles enter from the Salinas Valley on the monument’s west side, and Brenner said it is important they have facilities.
The estimated project cost is $9 million to $13 million, because of specific materials requirements and because the new buildings will have solar panels and other technology – allowing them to be off the power grid, Brenner said.
Park officials expect a contract to be awarded in May, with work to begin in June. Federal funds require the project to be completed in 18 months, Brenner said.
The National Park Service said that nationwide, 26 projects are being replaced with 36 others for numerous reasons, including project deadline requirements and because some projects have been completed.
At Pinnacles, other projects that are being funded include repair of 32 miles of fence to protect resources, and construction of fencing and removal of feral pigs to protect sensitive park land, Brenner said.
Some fencing will be built around land from the former Kingman Ranch that was added to the park in 2006. The nearly 2,000 acres include the Pinnacles Campground, Brenner said.
The trail project remains a priority and may be completed with other funds, he said.
The park service also announced funding for 30 “high priority” projects around the country. The park service said it is able to fund additional projects because lower construction costs provided a savings of $129 million.
“We are extremely excited to have the opportunity to do so much more with our Recovery Act funding than we originally planned,” Jon Jarvis, director of the National Park Service, said in a news release.
The park service said it received $750million of the $3billion in stimulus funds awarded the Department of the Interior.
