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Update, Martin Bay

I know, I know, the news release has made the rounds and you might have seen this already.  I also know there are some of you still fishing and some of you need to know about this:

Northbound traffic inside entrance to Lake Mac’s Martin Bay temporarily closed for project

LINCOLN, Neb. – The road inside the Martin Bay entrance at Lake McConaughy State Recreation Area is closed temporarily to northbound traffic, to allow for the construction of an improved entrance.

Visitors may enter at the Martin Bay entrance and go southbound only, to reach the Low Water Boat Ramp and Beach Areas 1 and 2, until Dec. 1, at which time southbound access also will close. All other areas of Shoreline Road must detour through the Arthur Bay or Sandy Beach entrances.

The Martin Bay entrance project is expected to be completed before Memorial Day 2022. The nearly $4.5 million project is funded by the Nebraska Recreation Road Fund and by Park User Fees and is being completed by Simon Contractors, Inc. of Nebraska.

The goal of the project is to improve visitor access at the park’s most popular entrance, by adding an additional gatehouse, significantly increasing stacking lanes, to reduce backing onto state highways and to tie the entrance into the ongoing Martin Bay Boat Ramp Improvement Project.

The improvements are part of the Nebraska Game and Parks Commission’s ongoing efforts, under the Park’s Master Plan, to improve the western Nebraska recreation areas, which has provided more than $6 million in improvements to date, with an additional $8 million currently underway at Martin Bay and Cedar View, collectively.

This map should explain exactly what area is closed and what still remains open, for now:

Martin Bay Closure - October 2021

About daryl bauer

Daryl is a lifelong resident of Nebraska (except for a couple of years spent going to graduate school in South Dakota). He has been employed as a fisheries biologist for the Nebraska Game and Parks Commission for 25 years, and his current tour of duty is as the fisheries outreach program manager. Daryl loves to share his educational knowledge and is an avid multi-species angler. He holds more than 120 Nebraska Master Angler Awards for 14 different species and holds more than 30 In-Fisherman Master Angler Awards for eight different species. He loves to talk fishing and answer questions about fishing in Nebraska, be sure to check out his blog at outdoornebraska.org.

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