Omaha just demolished its north entrance in late 2015 and now they've built an entirely new north entrance in 2016! This summer the gates will be open all day long but after August 15th this brand-new entrance will only be open on weekends.
The crowds surging into one of the biggest and best zoos in the country have caused traffic chaos and apparently the off-ramp from the highway will be expanded to 3 lanes. Even with 3,000 parking spaces, some visitors are using the local neighbourhood to leave their car. Any zoo that is inching towards 2 million annual visitors is going to feel a strain in terms of bursting at the seams and it seems as if every year Omaha is going to be opening a major new exhibit and the crowds will continue to pour into the zoo.
That's right. On the first day I went, i got there about 10 an hour after opening and the parking lot was already packed. Likewise the line of cars to get into the zoo was pretty long and this was on a Friday. On the second day there I got there about 8:45 and the parking lot was filling up fast and there were probably a good 300 people waiting to get in with another 100 buying tickets.
