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Hetch Hetchy Road Sign Improvement

Yosemite National Park » Hetch Hetchy Road Sign Improvement » Document List

The Hetch Hetchy area receives higher visitation in the spring and summer months and does not have enough parking to accommodate the increase in traffic for overnight as well as day use. The problem has been managed using temporary easel signs and traffic cones in past years. This project replaces the temporary signs with road signs that can be flipped to direct visitors to the correct parking areas and block off one lane of Main Street to use it for parking. The two main parking areas are the day use lot near the dam and the backpacker lot near the campground.

The backpacker lot overflow parking was eliminated when the new ranger station was built in 2010. Since then, vehicles have been parking in undesignated sites and causing resource damage. This project designates more overnight parking on Main Street by blocking off the left lane. Cars would turn left out of the lot and park on the left side of Main Street. One sign will read "Overflow Backpacker Parking" which can be turned to direct cars to the parking on Main Street. White parking lines will also be painted on the left side of the road to designate 15 parking spaces.

The second area of concern is the day use overflow parking. There are approximately 35 parking spaces for day visitors, but those quickly fill up and cars are instructed to park on Main Street, which is blocked off with cones and open only to one way traffic. This project replaces the 20-30 traffic cones and an easel sign with two flippable signs reading "Overflow Day Use Parking" on one panel and "Parking Available at Dam" on the other. Rangers will flip the signs to "Overflow Day Use Parking" when the parking at the dam is full and flip it back when spaces are available at the dam in the same fashion as a chain control sign. The signs will be at the south end of Main Street and at the north end designating approximately 35 parking spaces on Main Street. White parking spaces will be painted on Main Street to delineate the spaces, and white arrows will be painted on the road indicating the one way traffic toward the dam.
Three other signs in the area that are not needed will be removed resulting in the same number of actual signs being in place.

Lastly, two areas near the dam need to be marked "Authorized Vehicles Only" by using white stenciling on the pavement. These areas are where rangers and city personnel park when accessing the dam and are currently blocked off by cones that would no longer be needed.