The United States’ National Parks are crumbling. As is the case with the nation’s K-12 public schools, many federal government facilities and other buildings that rely on taxpayers to fund ongoing repairs and maintenance, the national parks have racked up massive backlogs of overdue facility and infrastructure repairs.
The Park Service's deferred maintenance and repair backlog is $21.8 billion, including $7.1 billion needed for buildings, $5.2 billion for paved roads, and $1.3 billion for water systems, according to National Parks Traveler.
Fortunately, the Great American Outdoors Act (GAOA) enacted in 2022 established the Legacy Restoration Fund to address overdue maintenance needs at four federal agencies, including the National Park Service. The agency will receive $6.5 billion over five years for deferred maintenance and repairs -– the estimate of how much it costs to repair and restore deteriorating assets to an acceptable and safe condition.
Since its enactment, parks across the country are receiving a funding infusion:
Dan Hounsell is senior editor of the facilities market. He has more than 30 years of experience writing about facilities maintenance, engineering and management.
