Construction for a long awaited replacement bridge from the east side of Laramie to the west is about to begin. The current Clark street bridge that runs over Laramie’s train tracks has connected the city the city for 53 years, but faced a number of safety concerns. The new bridge will be located on Harney street.
Wyoming Department of Transportation engineer Steve Cook said the current structure is too weak for rehabilitation and its materials will not be used in the construction of the new bridge.
“Anything that’s recyclable they’ll take to a recycling facility – all of the steel items,” said Cook. “And then the concrete will either be crushed up and recycled as a base or it’ll go to the landfill.”
WYDOT designed the new bridge to have four lanes of traffic, with space for bicycles and pedestrians, in order to fix some of the safety problems of the old bridge.
“We just spent a lot of time working with the city and the public to come up with the best location for the new viaduct,” Cook said. “Then we went through a design process so we could actually let it to contract to build the new structure.”
S & S Contractors of Gillette will begin construction this spring, and expect to finish the project in 2019. The city will close down and demolish the original viaduct only after the new one is complete.