Yosemite National Park is receiving $35 million in federal funding to improve the historic Ahwahnee Hotel.
Funding comes from the Great American Outdoors Act, which was signed into law by former President Donald Trump in 2020.
Flashback:The Great American Outdoors Act passed Congress with widespread bipartisan support.
- The National Parks Service receives $1.33 billion annually for five years to address maintenance at national parks across the country.
The big picture: Funding for the Ahwahnee Hotel will go towards seismic retrofits, kitchen upgrades, HVAC improvements and a restoration of historic elements.
- Without the improvements, the hotel would eventually be in a state of non-compliance with safety standards.
Zoom out: Federal funding benefiting Yosemite National Park will not only go toward upgrading the Ahwahnee Hotel, given that the park faces $1.275 billion in deferred maintenance and repairs.
- Another project on tap for this year is to replace the Tuolumne Meadows Wastewater Plant, which will cost $81.3 million.
- The other projects that have already been budgeted for in the past several years include repairing and replacing high voltage transmission lines from Parkline to Highway 140, Glacier Point Road rehabilitation, rehabilitating the Tuolumne Meadows Campground, rehabilitating the Crane Flat Campground, rehabilitating the Bridalveil Creek Campground Water Distribution System and rehabilitating El Portal Wastewater Treatment Facility and Administrative Camp.
