Rehabilitation of Highway 62 West, Crater Lake National Park, Klamath County, Oregon
ENVIRONMENTAL CONSEQUENCES
ALTERNATIVE C: PREFERRED ALTERNATIVE
This section evaluates the potential impacts of alternative C, the preferred alternative.
Visitor Use and Highway Safety
Under alternative C, effects to visitor use and highway safety would be similar to those described for alternative B, with the exception of the switchbacks. The radii of the switchbacks would be increased, resulting in longer sight distances, possibly reducing the potential for vehicular loss of control and associated collisions. Visitors would experience a more pleasurable driving experience through the widened switchback, particularly those operating long vehicles (buses, recreational vehicles, and towing vehicles). This would also result in a long-term, minor, beneficial effect.
Cumulative Impacts. Past, present, and reasonably foreseeable future actions that would have an effect on visitor use and highway safety include trail rehabilitation and relocation, and the reconstruction of the Rim parking lot. The effects of these projects would be long term and negligible beneficial. Alternative C would contribute a long-term, negligible, beneficial effect to these actions.
Conclusion. Alternative C would have a long-term, minor, beneficial effect on visitor use and highway safety. Short-term effects would be both minor and adverse and negligible beneficial. The cumulative effect would be a long-term, negligible, beneficial effect.
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