Page:Big Oak Flat Road (HAER No. CA-147) written historical and descriptive data.pdf/15

 of the Raker Act. More time was also required for careful landscape p1anning. Work on the New Big Oak Flat Road did not commence until 1935. In the meantime, reconstruction work began on the Wawona Road.

As with the new Wawona Road, completed in 1933, the design of the new Big Oak Flat Road invoked serious study by the National Park Service's landscape division. Park Service Director Horace Albright, who replaced Mather in 1929, was personally involved in the planning process. The overwhelming concern was to integrate the new road into the landscape without scarring the exposed cliffs above the Merced River and Crane Creek valleys. To lessen the impact of the road, tunnels, stone retaining walls, and new bridges were utilized.

The new route was planned and designed in 1933 and 1934. The road would leave the All-Weather Highway at the Power House Dam on the Merced River, then climb up the north side of the valley above the Cascades to reach Meyer Pass in 4 miles. In this section, it would cross three creeks (Cascade, Tamarack and Wildcat) on open spandrel arch concrete bridges, and pass through three tunnels in order to preserve the granite cliffs. The extensive road cuts that would be required would be hidden by long stretches of rock retaining walls. Boring the three tunnels would actually require less excavation than road cuts. Excavated materials would be used for the roadbed or would be backhauled to side canyons and dumped behind forest screens. Project planning was done by the San Francisco district office of the Bureau of Public Roads, and was reviewed and approved by the National Park Service landscape architecture division. Thomas M. Roach, engineer for the Bureau of Public Roads arrived in Yosemite in April 1934 to oversee the location survey.

Construction of the new road began on 23 January 1935 under the supervision of the Bureau of Public Roads, assisted by the park landscape architecture division. Some $300,000 was allotted for the first phase of work, clearing from the Valley floor to Meyer Pass. By the end of March, the first mile had been cleared by thirty day laborers working with drills, a compressor and six jackhammers. Four masonry crews were placing the hand-laid stone embankments which would bear a pioneer road over much of the stretch. Stone for the retaining walls came largely from materials excavated for the right-of-way.

Morrison-Knudsen, principal contractor for the upper section between Crane Flat and Meyer Pass, established its construction camp on the Coulterville Road at Big Meadows in April 1935, and immediately began clearing operations with 65 men. The firm first built the connector between Foresta and the new Big Oak Flat Road. By the end of the month, the work force on the lower section of the main road had cleared all the way from the Valley to the construction site for the first tunnel.

By midsummer, clearing was complete on the section between Meyer Pass and Crane Flat, and rough grading was underway. Morrison-Knudsen had increased its work force to 87 men. Equipment in use included a power shovel, trucks and tractors. Progress was behind schedule due to breakdowns, and a second shovel was ordered for the job. On the Valley floor-Meyer Pass section, the