News.bytes Extra, issue 405

 BLM's Mother Lode Field Office finishing three ARRA projects

The Bureau of Land Management’s Mother Lode Field Office is winding up construction on three projects funded through the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009.

In a $102,000 public health project in the Merced River Canyon at Briceburg, a water distribution system that meets public health code was installed to provide water from a new well to a public faucet and an existing BLM residence. The Merced River is a popular recreation site used by whitewater rafters, as well as campers and day use visitors. (text continues below)

Crews work on the water supply system at Briceburg

ARRA funding also was used in a $76,000 road rehabilitation project in the Merced River Canyon to repair damage from storm runoff following the 2008 Telegraph Fire. Contractors removed landslides and installed culverts along five miles of the Merced River Recreation Road.

Visitor access to the Stevens National Historic Trail will be improved through a $77,000 ARRA project. A parking lot at the Colfax trailhead has been gravel surfaced in the first phase of the project and will be chip sealed and striped.

Stevens trail is a popular hiking trail in the Sierra Nevadas that was originally used as a toll path during the California Gold Rush.

A member of a work crew places rock in the Stevens Trail parking lot

- Dave Christy, BLM Central California District, 9/19/09

BLM-California News.bytes, issue 405