photograph of the entrance road to the Ace Basin National Wildlife Refuge, South Carolina, looking from the office down the entrance roads, there is a circular driveway in the foreground with a fountain in the center, to the sides are tall trees with spanish moss fall down in long strands. photograph of a gravel parking lot at the Kenai National Wildlife Refuge, Alaska. The parking lot is filled with motor homes. photograph of a newly constructed concrete bridge on the White River National Wildlife Refuge in Arkansas. The bridge is in the center of the image with road curving into and out of the woods on both sides, a shallow creek filled with brown waters flows below the bridge, the banks adjacent to the bridge are covered with fresh straw to help prevent soil erosion.

From left to right: Ace Basin NWR (SC), Kenai NWR (AK), White River NWR (AR). FHWA photographs


Inventory of Public Roads

The Federal Lands Highways (FLH), Central Federal Lands Division conducts an inventory and condition assessment of all public roads and parking lots on national wildlife refuges and national fish hatcheries over a five year period. This inventory and condition assessment serve as the Service's basic public use road management system. It provides a benchmark from which the Service is able to document the status, condition, funding needs and improvements of the public roads.

Current Work Plan Revision as of September 1, 2009 — Transportation Improvement Plan for Roads (252 KB Excel)

Geo-spatial data is collected on all roads and parking lots for use with geographic information systems and is available for use by other federal agencies, state agencies, local governments and the public.

Public Roads

The Service currently manages over 4,900 miles of public roads in the 50 states, Puerto Rico, Virgin Islands and Guam. Approximately 8% of the roads are paved. The remaining 92% are gravel or native material. The value of these assets is estimated at $1.5 billion.

Road Condition

Pie chart showing the condition of public roads: good - 46%; fair - 44%; and poor - 24%

Parking Lots

There are over 5,100 parking lots on Service lands. Paved parking accounts for 15% of Service parking lots. The remaining 85% of the parking is gravel or native material.

Parking Lot Condition

Pie chart showing the condition of public parking lots: good - 42%; fair - 35%; and poor - 11%

During peak visitation periods many refuges have inadequate parking to accommodate visitors. This causes visitors to pull off along roadway edges, impacts to the road shoulders, underlying dikes and adjacent vegetation. Safety problems for visitors and wildlife occur because of inadequate parking.

For maintenance and improvements to the over 4,900 miles of roads and 5,100 parking lots shown in the Service's inventory, it has been estimated that the Service would need at least $126 million a year for cyclical replacement funding.