Road Graders and other heavy equipment will be on park roads during the winter months of 2021 and 2022/NPS, Greg Bowman

Much-needed roadwork is being tackled at Mojave National Preserve in California this month. The work will take place on Ivanpah, Lanfair, and Black Canyon roads. Visitors and inholding residents in the preserve may encounter trucks carrying rock aggregate material and road crews working in the area, which may cause short delays for motorists.

Part of the preserve's road problems have been weather-inflicted. In late July, after a year of almost no precipitation, monsoon rains dumped three inches of rain in one hour across Mojave National Preserve.

“The rains blew out every single one of our roads,” Mojave National Preserve Science Advisor Debra Hughson told the Traveler's Jonathan Horwitz earlier this year. “It took pieces of pavement off Essex Road and floated them down the arroyo like they were chunks of iceberg.”

Preserve staff say road base aggregate will be hauled into the preserve and placed on the existing road surface to improve their drivability. The specially designed material is cohesive to resist erosion and “wash-boarding.”

More than 400 truckloads of aggregate will be imported at a rate of five to six trucks per day from a quarry in South Las Vegas. The preserve's road crew will place, grade, and compact the material. The work will be done Monday to Thursday, which will avoid delays on weekends. The NPS expects to complete this project by mid-March. Working in the winter helps protect desert tortoise, which are underground during the cold season.