Stimulus funds to upgrade parkway, Shenandoah park

More than $30 million in federal stimulus money will go toward upgrades on the Blue Ridge Parkway and at Shenandoah National Park, the Department of Interior announced Wednesday.

Shenandoah National Park will receive $17 million, the largest amount of money awarded to any national park in Virginia. Of that sum, $9.5 million will go toward rehabilitating 16 historic overlooks along Skyline Drive.

“These projects very much will help on our deferred maintenance list,” said Karen Beck-Herzog, public affairs officer for Shenandoah National Park. “They are important projects to Shenandoah and will help to protect those resources.”

The Blue Ridge Parkway, which snakes 469 miles through Virginia and North Carolina, will receive $13.3 million. The parkway repairs include reconstructing the historic stone guardwalls and removing vegetation and hazardous trees while repairing trails parkwide.

Both the parkway and Skyline Drive, which stretches 105 miles through Shenandoah National Park, have entrances at Rockfish Gap near Waynesboro.

In addition, $650,000 will go toward improving the Appalachian National Scenic Trail, of which $25,000 will go toward relocating 2 miles of the trail in Virginia.

The money is part of the $750 million allocated to more than 750 projects at national parks across the United States as part of the American Recovery and Investment Act of 2009.

Ken Salazar, secretary of the interior, said in a statement that the investment in the national park system would create “a new legacy of stewardship for our national park system while helping our economy stand up again.”

The Interior Department will also spend $55.8 million on the National Mall, including $30.5 million to repair the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool, and $24.3 million to repair or rehabilitate roads in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park in Tennessee and North Carolina.

The projects across the national park system were prioritized based on need, the number of jobs they would create in the shortest time and their lasting value to the public.

Beck-Herzog said Shen-andoah National Park would work to start projects as soon as possible.

“The park will be putting the projects out for bid as quickly as we can,” she said.

The money designated for the projects, she said, had to be obligated by September 2010, meaning that a contractor has to be chosen and the money set aside to complete the work, but it does not mean the work would be completed by that date.

Once work begins, visitors to the park can expect some overlooks to be closed, but Beck-Herzog said the park would remain open.

“I think this is a win-win situation,” Beck-Herzog said. “We are putting our communities to work and getting people up to Shenandoah National Park. … In the long run, this will go a long way toward improving their experience in the future.”