Got a hankering for the mouth-watering fried chicken served at Mammoth Cave Hotel? Well, you’ll probably have to wait.

Renovations to the main lodge’s original electrical system began today, forcing its closure until May. But visitors will still be able to find a place to eat and stay overnight.

The lodge work coincides with $6 million in work on the 75-year-old trail for the Historic Tour, the tour taken by many first-time visitors to the cave.

“This is a line item for construction – the largest in the entire national park system,” Deputy Superintendent Bruce Powell said of the trail work.

The National Park Service has a pool of funding for which parks compete to do construction projects they couldn’t otherwise afford, according to Superintendent Sarah Craighead.

“We just got to the top of the list,” Craighead said.

“The cave trail was built by the Civilian Conservation Corps in the 1930s,” she said. “It is quite old and has lots of potholes so we will resurface the trail to provide a secure walkway.”

Powell said that mostly means putting down pavers and, in some areas, handrails.

While the work will take at least until the end of 2016 and likely into 2017, some sections will be open during the park’s busiest times, including fall break and spring break.

“And we will stop the work before next summer, so the entire area will be open,” Craighead said.

During the busy times, including weekends, the park’s usual 14 tours a day will be bumped up to 16. Patrons, however, will be taken by bus to an entrance. Visitors won’t be able to walk to the historic entrance from the visitors center as they do now. The additional tours have been scheduled in other parts of the cave, she said.

As for the work on the lodge, crews will be replacing the original wiring, installing a new heating and cooling system and adding a fire suppression system. That work is expected to take about eight months. The work means the lodge kitchen will be offline.

“But we will still have food and rooms for people to stay,” Powell said. “It is probably going to be grab-and-go kind of food, but they are looking at other options including maybe doing some grilling.”

Food also will be available for purchase at the Caver’s Camp Store. Gifts and souvenirs will be available at the camp store and in the visitor center.

Lodging will be available in the Sunset Terrace Lodge, the Hotel Cottages and the Woodland Cottages, but those close for the season Nov. 1 and will reopen in March.

The work on the main lodge will cost about $3 million and an additional $1 million will be spent on Sunset Terrace Lodge that will get a new roof, heating and cooling and see its rooms refreshed, according to Powell.

That money is coming from the fees paid by park visitors.

A separate contract will be issued sometime soon to tear down the Heritage Trail wing, something that has been a source of consternation for people in the area’s tourism industry. At public hearings, community members asked for a full renovation of the park’s lodging facilities. In the end, NPS determined it was more feasible to tear down the Heritage wing and not replace it.

Craighead wants the public to know the park is still open for business during the construction projects.

“All services will be available,” she said. “They will just be a little different.”

— Follow City Editor Robyn L. Minor on Twitter at twitter.com/bowserminor or visit bgdailynews.com.