highways

The Wyoming Department of Transportation is reminding residents to use extra caution around snow plows on highways.

A legislative committee is brainstorming ideas for how to protect communities from emergency infrastructure failures, like the recent irrigation tunnel collapse in Goshen County that left 100,000 acres of Wyoming and Nebraska farmland without water and effecting over 700 farms.

A project to repair a slide on the Chief Joseph Scenic Byway, 20 miles from Cody, will be resuming work next week. The $5.54 million repair started last August after the road slid in April.

Cody Beers, a public relations specialist with the Wyoming Department of Transportation, said this road is very important to the state because it connects Wyoming to the North East Entrance of Yellowstone National Park and the All-American Beartooth Highway.

Highway deaths are up this year - more than 60 people have died on Wyoming roadways so far in 2019. This time last year, there were only 27 fatalities.

A massive winter storm that will continue overnight has dumped over a foot of snow in some places and drifts even higher. Local law enforcement agencies said snow accumulations, icy roads and strong winds have contributed to a number of accidents and many communities are asking residents to stay off the roads.  

Chris Jones of the National Weather Service in Riverton said the storm lived up to expectations with the storm focused on the eastern half of the state. 

Wyoming experienced 16 highway fatalities in January. Although fatalities have been declining overall, that's a relatively high number to start the year off with according to the Wyoming Highway Patrol. There was a total of 108 highway fatalities in 2018. WYDOT and the Highway Patrol are urging drivers to practice safe driving, especially during winter months.

A crash on Interstate 80 Wednesday morning has left westbound lanes closed between Rawlins and Laramie. US 30 north of Laramie and westbound lanes of I-80 between Laramie and Cheyenne were also closed to help with truck traffic and congestion.

Driving many of the highways of the Mountain West, it's common to be a lone car surrounded by semi-trucks. But that could change. The trucking industry is facing a record shortage of drivers right now.

Bob Costello is the Chief Economist at the American Trucking Associations. He said if current trends hold,the shortage of drivers could surpass 174,000 by 2026.

"If you're short bottled water what happens to the price of bottled water? It goes up," Costello said.

Wyoming Governor Matt Mead, Secretary of State Ed Buchanan, and the Wyoming Department of Transportation will designate a 19 mile stretch of Highway 28 in Fremont County as the "Wyoming Women's Suffrage Pathway."

In this past budget session, Wyoming’s state legislature funded a $30 million project that would benefit a coal mine that’s owner may soon go bankrupt. Westmoreland Coal Company is over a billion dollars in debt and has mentioned the possibility of bankruptcy in this past quarterly report. State legislators approved the sizable project, which would invest money relocating the highway U.S. 30 to accommodate a mine expansion.

According to a new analysis from the website SafeWise, an online resource that provides information on safety for communities, Wyoming ranks as the most dangerous state for driving in snow.

The Wyoming State Historical Society has published a new book about the controversy and conspiracy that surrounds Interstate 80 and its dangerous past. The book is called Snow Chi Minh Trail: The History of Interstate 80 between Laramie and Walcott Junction.

The 77 mile stretch of interstate is considered especially notorious for its tragic history. The book’s title refers to the mountainous roadway used by North Vietnamese soldiers to reach South Vietnam during the Vietnam War.

Wyoming’s stretch of Interstate 80 is notorious for dicey weather conditions and heavy truck traffic. But it’s also a great place to study how to make driving safer, and that’s why it’s the testing site for a collaboration between the Wyoming Department of Transportation and the University of Wyoming.

Heavy eclipse traffic in Wyoming caused slower travel than usual. Wyoming Department of Transportation spokesman Doug McGee said on Sunday alone traffic counts increased by more than 27 percent compared to the five-year average statewide. But certain areas saw exponential increases. For example, north of Laramie on U.S. 30-287 traffic increased by 214 percent on Sunday according to WYDOT.

According to the Wyoming Game and Fish Department, collisions between wildlife and vehicles have been on the rise in recent months.

Doug Brimeyer is the Deputy Chief of Wildlife for the Game and Fish and he says after so many winter storms, the deep snow is limiting winter forage, and so animals are being forced to look for food at lower elevations. Brimeyer said it’s easier for animals to travel where the snow has been plowed back, but that big snow banks on either side of the road, especially in parts of western Wyoming, can trap them.

A blizzard in the Beartooth Mountains outside Cody, trapped snow plow drivers and even the tow truck that came to pull them out. An amazing rescue saved one plow truck driver who spent all night in the cab of his plow. He survived deadly cold and wind.

In Cody on Monday morning, just as temperatures rose above freezing for the first time in four days, blinding blowing snow trapped a big backhoe in a drift, and it had to be pulled out with another rig.

High winds around the state have forced state officials to close several roads to light, high profile vehicles. Some of the road closures include portions of I-25 between Cheyenne and Wheatland, and I-80 between Laramie and Rawlins.

The Wyoming Highway Patrol say it has investigated at least 80 crashes around the state since Monday, many of those involving vehicles that have blown over.

Avalanches can be dangerous and shut down highways on many of the roads going in and out of the Jackson area, especially on Highway 191 through Hoback Canyon. But in the last few years, the Wyoming Department of Transportation has been installing new technology there that’s helped control the problem.

Avalanche technician Jamie Yount said in 2013, they installed the first remotely controlled avalanche exploders in North America. He said the new equipment now allows WYDOT to trigger avalanches on their own schedule and on a closed highway.

A scientist says more than 6,000 deer are hit and killed on Wyoming roads each year, causing more than $50 million in injuries and damage to cars and wildlife. One scientist is studying the new nighttime speed limits to see if they really work.