Yellowstone and Grand Teton national parks will use a combined $33.5 million in stimulus funds from the federal government for infrastructure projects, Interior Secretary Ken Salazar announced Wednesday.

Grand Teton National Park will receive $18.8 million and Yellowstone $14.7 million. 

The money is part of $750 million allocated to National Park Service projects across the country from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009. Federal officials and conservation groups say the money will help address the Park Service’s estimated $9 billion maintenance backlog. More federal money for highways in national parks is expected in the coming weeks.

In Grand Teton, spokeswoman Jackie Skaggs said Salazar’s announcement is welcome news.

“We’re just thrilled to receive federal funding so we can address some of our deferred maintenance,” she said. “The other really positive side of this is that it really will be a part of stimulating the local and regional economy. The scope of this allocation is kind of unprecedented for the National Park Service.”

Some of the money will go toward the rehabilitation of the Moose administrative complex, a project that will move the administrative offices to currently unfinished space above the park’s main maintenance complex.

“It’s an opportunity for us to consolidate park operations and office space as well as visitor services in the Moose area,” Skaggs said.

The building that now houses the administrative offices and the former visitor center will be turned into storage space and offices for the Grand Teton Association, she said.   

“The existing building is not up to the safety standards and codes, especially for earthquake zones,” Skaggs said.  

Grand Teton will also complete the Colter Bay maintenance building. The old structure’s roof collapsed two winters ago. The park will add additional space to a new building at the site and demolish the old structure.

Other park projects include the rehabilitation of the Granite Canyon trail, which hasn’t seen significant maintenance in 15 years, “from top to bottom,” Skaggs said.

“It’s one of the most popular trails in the park,” she said. “We will do all the repair work to make it a better and more enjoyable trail and to reduce the erosion that has been occurring.”

Skaggs said the Granite trail project will create 25 new jobs, at least 30 percent of which will come from the local community. She said the projects will happen this year and next year.

“We’re going to be putting this money back into the economy immediately,” she said.

Sharon Mader, Grand Teton program manager for the National Parks Conservation Association, said the money is a good start toward addressing Grand Teton’s $131 million maintenance backlog.

“This is great news for Grand Teton,” she said. “The funding for their aging infrastructure is long overdue.”

Yellowstone spokesman Al Nash said the $14.7 million in recovery funds will help address infrastructure needs and help the park take steps toward sustainability. The park has an estimated $250 million maintenance backlog. 

One of the biggest projects in Yellowstone is the replacement of the Madison wastewater treatment plant.

“We’ve known for some time that the ... treatment plant needed to be replaced,” Nash said. “This one has now been in service for five decades. It had limited capacity and had reached a point where there was real risk of failure.”

Nash said officials plan to break ground on the new treatment plant this summer.

Some funds will go toward a small hydroelectric plant to generate power from a drinking water system at Mammoth Hot Springs. Other projects include refurbishing the boardwalks at some of the thermal features and trail work.

“All of it is very necessary infrastructure work that we had ready to go,” Nash said. “We were just awaiting funding. It’s good for the park resources; it’s good for the park visitors. We will contract out the work so that it will mean jobs in the local economy, all of which the act was designed to accomplish.”

Danielle Blank, a senior coordinator for the Yellowstone field office of the National Parks Conservation Association, called the funding a “win-win-win.”

“It’s restoring part of America’s heritage,” she said, “creating jobs in the short term and shoring up Yellowstone National Park, which is the anchor for the tourism industry in this region.”