Yosemite Approach To Be Protected From Rock Slides With Elegant New Design

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YOSEMITE (CBS) – Yosemite National Park is one of the most beautiful places on earth, if you can get there. Rock slides have plagued one of three primary routes into the valley in recent years. That’s about to change, thanks to a $133 million project that will also beautify the Highway 140 approach.

The conceptual rendering above shows what the road from Mariposa to El Portal will look like once a 750 foot covered structure is installed to shield the road leading to the western gate from the crumbling hillside. The four-year project kicked off last week and rubble removal began immediately.

The stone and wood structure – known as the Ferguson Project – is evocative of the parks famed Ahwahnee Hotel.

It was designed to shield the road from the Ferguson Slide, a section of road that was covered in rubble of during a slide of Spring 2006. Temporary bridges and traffic controls have allowed access while the permanent fix was worked out.

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