Teton Pass

Fire crews are starting to do some prescribed burning in Grand Teton National Park this week. The efforts help reduce future wildfire risk by burning dead wood and brush in the cooler late fall conditions.

WYDOT had hoped it could beat snowfall and wrap up work on Teton Pass by November. But, the full landslide repairs will now have to wait until next summer.

The Forest Service is asking for additional firefighting resources to control the blaze.

After three weeks of around the clock work, the highway over Teton Pass reopened with a temporary detour on June 28. A more permanent rebuild is in the works ahead of winter storms.

In this exclusive interview, Buttigieg talks about funding for roadways, infrastructure in national parks, electric vehicles, and the Teton Pass collapse and the schedule for its rebuild.

A landslide recently wiped out part of the highway on Teton Pass, tripling drive times for thousands of people commuting between Northwest Wyoming and Eastern Idaho. With climate change and aging infrastructure, experts say other mountain communities could see similar disasters.

The alternate route connecting Idaho and Wyoming takes nearly three hours one way. Commuters making the round trip could drive to Salt Lake City in less time.

A section of the highway over Teton Pass catastrophically failed on June 8, disconnecting the tourist destination of Jackson from a sizable chunk of its workforce. For some businesses, the impacts have been manageable so far. For others, the way forward is a bit unclear.

WYDOT said it hopes to complete a rebuild of the collapsed section of the Teton Pass roadway by November at an emergency Wyoming Transportation Commission meeting on June 11. In the meantime, a $430,000 contract was approved to build a detour that’s expected to be completed in two weeks, weather permitting.

The Wyoming Department of Transportation said it’s confident a safe, temporary two-lane detour around the slide can be built using nearby fill material. The agency said strict weight and width restrictions are likely and hopes to have the short-term fix open to the public in a few weeks.