The National Park Service announces that it has awarded a contract for construction of a new Timpanogos Cave visitor contact station to the Ralph L. Wadsworth Construction Company of Salt Lake City. Work is expected to begin immediately after Labor Day, with completion anticipated in early June of 2019.

The park will offer its final cave tours of the 2018 season and close its current visitor center for good on Sept. 3. The Cave Trail will be closed to hikers after Sept. 3 to ensure safety in and around the construction site.

Tickets for the rest of the season can be purchased up to 30 days in advance through www.recreation.gov.

The park's Swinging Bridge Picnic Area and the Canyon Nature Trail will remain open as normal, but drivers on SR 92 through the park can expect periodic short term delays and traffic control around the construction site.

The new facility will replace the modular building that was installed as an emergency replacement immediately after an accidental electrical fire destroyed the park's visitor center and administrative offices in February 1991.

In addition to the construction of the new visitor contact station, the project also will include realignment of a short section of State Route 92, new parking configuration and an improved rock fall barrier fence above the parking lot.