South Sickles Avenue, who runs through Devil’s Den at Gettysburg National Military Park is closed for Labor Day Weekend. The contractor for the National Park Service is resurfacing the roads. We are well past the point of awe and frustration with closing down major areas of the battlefield during high visitation periods, and we now just have to laugh.

There’s so much we could say here, but we have limited ourselves to the following:

The Park Service says that it’s out of their hands, it’s the contractors fault. They’ll say that they can’t have something written into the bids that establish heavy fines for work not finished on time, or heavy traffic areas not being open during busy holiday weekends.

But, even if that’s true, where are the National Park Service personnel to assist with traffic problems and individuals who do not understand the parking areas or detour routes at these locations? By this Saturday afternoon this area was much worse.

The Park Service just can’t walk away from this. Somebody needs to be in charge. One just can’t keep shaking their heads and blaming someone else for the closure. This area became unsafe this afternoon with much heavier traffic.

See our post of the Devil’s Den access closure on August 8, 2008.

See our post on the closure of the Reynolds Avenue Bridge on Memorial Day Weekend on May 23, 2008.

See our post on the closure of the Reynolds Avenue Bridge on June 30, 2008.