The National Park Service has announced a series of upcoming closures and single-lane restrictions for sections of Acadia National Park's Park Loop Road, beginning October 15. These measures are necessary to facilitate essential culvert replacement and roadside repair projects, affecting residents and visitors' access to various island landmarks through late November, before the annual seasonal shutdown.
Beginning Tuesday, October 15, and continuing through Saturday, November 16, a single-lane closure will be in effect on Park Loop Road. This initial phase of culvert replacement work will impact the section of the road situated between the start of the one-way portion and the Cadillac Summit Road. All users navigating this segment of the iconic island roadway should anticipate encountering the single-lane restriction. Despite this, the primary one-way section of Park Loop Road will remain fully accessible to traffic. The National Park Service advises that individuals holding vehicle reservations for Cadillac Summit Road should account for potential traffic delays and plan their travel accordingly, allocating additional time for their journeys.
Further changes to access will take effect starting Sunday, November 17. On this date, the section of Park Loop Road previously subject to single-lane restrictions – specifically, the stretch between the start of the one-way section and Cadillac Summit Road – will transition to a full closure. This closure will affect all uses of the road and is expected to continue "until further notice" for the ongoing culvert replacement efforts. However, the National Park Service has indicated a temporary reprieve, with plans to reopen this particular section to all uses for a brief period between Thursday, November 28, and Saturday, November 30.
Concurrently, also commencing Sunday, November 17, a separate temporary closure will be implemented for roadside repairs. This work will close the section of Park Loop Road located between the Jordan Pond north parking lot and Cadillac Summit Road to all uses. During this period, direct access to Cadillac Summit Road itself will be unavailable. The park anticipates being able to temporarily reopen this segment of Park Loop Road, along with Cadillac Summit Road, to all uses for two distinct windows: first, from Friday, November 22, to Sunday, November 24, and again from Thursday, November 28, to Saturday, November 30. These scheduled reopenings offer limited opportunities for access before further closures.
These project-related closures precede the park's regularly scheduled seasonal shutdown. As is customary, the National Park Service will implement its annual seasonal road closure for motor vehicles on Sunday, December 1. From this date, both Park Loop Road and Cadillac Summit Road will be closed to motor vehicle traffic, a status that will remain in effect until April 14 of the following year. This long-standing annual closure marks the transition to winter conditions and limits vehicular access across much of the park's paved network.
For those planning visits in the immediate future, the requirement for vehicle reservations to access Cadillac Summit Road remains in place through Sunday, October 27, 2024. Visitors intending to drive to the summit must secure a reservation up until this date.
