Wetland Statement of Findings for Grand Canyon Railway Culvert Replacement

Grand Canyon National Park has prepared a Wetland Statement of Findings for a proposal by the Grand Canyon Railway to replace a wooden triple box culvert (also referred to as a wooden ballast bridge) at the South Rim of Grand Canyon National Park. The culvert, which carries the Grand Canyon Railway wye track over Bright Angel Wash, was built in 1926 and is in poor condition. The preferred alternative would replace the existing wooden triple box culvert with three 120-feet-long by 60-inch-diameter steel pipe culverts.

The Wetland Statement of Findings acknowledges that the preferred alternative would permanently impact 0.0961 acres of Bright Angel Wash, which is considered an ephemeral waterway under National Park Service (NPS) Director's Order #77-1: Wetland Protection. Another 0.0038 acres of Bright Angel Wash would be temporarily disturbed and restored after construction. Impacts to the wash were minimized through design, and compensatory mitigation is not proposed because the impacts are under one-tenth of an acre.

This Wetland Statement of Findings documents compliance with Executive Order 11990 and the NPS wetland policies and procedures found in Director's Order #77-1 and Procedural Manual #77-1.

The NPS is accepting public comments from June 10, 2026 until 11:59pm MT, June 23, 2026. For more details or to submit comments on the Wetland Statement of Findings, visit the NPS Planning, Environment, and Public Comment website at https://parkplanning.nps.gov/SouthRimWoodenBallastBridge and click on 'Open for Comment.'

All comments are public records and may be made publicly available at any time, including personal information such as addresses, phone numbers, email addresses or other details included in comment submissions.

Document Content:

20260527_WSOF_Replace GCR Wooden Box Culvert.pdf   (35.1 MB, PDF file) News Release_ WSOF Replace Wooden Ballast Bridge_web.pdf   (1.3 MB, PDF file) Disclaimer: Links within the above document(s) were valid as of the date published. Note: Some of the files may be in PDF format and can be viewed using the Adobe Acrobat Reader software. You may download a free copy of from Adobe Systems.