Yellowstone Reopens a Key Gateway After Devastating June Flooding
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Yellowstone has reopened a critical entry point into the National Park after a nearly year of reconstruction following the devastating June floods.
The Yellowstone River Bridge officially reopened just before noon Friday, just a week after the “worst flood” in Yellowstone’s history left more than a dozen dead, caused $1 billion in damage and forced officials to shut down Yellowstone for nearly a year.
The National Park Service said it would spend $1.2 billion on the reconstruction project.
“The reopening of the bridge and the restoration of Yellowstone’s most important access points are critical milestones in Yellowstone’s long restoration journey,” the agency said in a statement. “Visitors can rest assured that the bridge and its replacement structures will remain open to the public throughout the reconstruction process.”
The bridge was closed just after 1:00 am Monday. It’s the first time it’s been opened since June 22, when the floods of June 4 and 5 came after months of warnings about a potential breach that the river had been slowly eroding.
As they have since June, national park visitors were able to drive to the north entrance, across the bridge on the south side and into Yellowstone National Park. But they also watched, as they often do, from the banks of the banks of the river, as the concrete and steel deck was replaced.
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“Some of it was just like a car wash, but it felt like a real bridge,” says Tom Rehage, a park ranger. “It was exciting to witness.”
The park was only able to reopen the north entrance after repairs to the river began, he says, and the bridge was closed for almost a year. But the biggest challenge, perhaps, was getting the park’s massive water-loss map from the National Park Service to everyone who uses the river for recreational or commercial purposes — the park entrance, commercial fishing boats and motorboats, backpack guides and others.