WYDOT keeping roads open despite erosion, rock fall, mudslides

Heavy spring rainfall in Wyoming has led to erosion, rock fall and mudslide issues around the state, and the men and women of WYDOT are working around the clock to ensure the flow of traffic and the safety of our citizens.

“Our employees not only maintain these roads, they and their families drive these roads and are committed to working hard to keep up with the challenges this weather creates on our state’s roadways,” WYDOT Director Luke Reiner said.

A number of roads have been closed and reopened, and three areas currently still have travel impacts.

For the month of May, precipitation has been as much as 200 percent higher than normal in Wyoming, DayWeather President and Meteorologist Don Day said.

“May is the wettest month of the year on average, so when you double that, you’re really talking about it being wet,” he said. “It’s made the perfect storm for wet, unstable ground.”

Day said March and April were also very wet months, with more to come in June.

“We have a good chance of above normal precipitation, but it finally will get warmer,” he said, which will lead to afternoon and evening thunderstorms. “The combination of that and the fact that a lot of the snow hasn’t melted, we are going to continue to be concerned about slides. It’s not going to turn hot and dry.”

The biggest travel impacts related to the spring weather are on WYO 296 at the Pat O’Hara Creek bridge, in Wind River Canyon and on US 14 west of Dayton.

High water has caused severe erosion around the Pat O’Hara Creek bridge, located north of Cody, just hundreds of feet off WYO 120, at the beginning of Chief Joseph Scenic Highway.

"We have lost the riprap on this structure," said Wyoming Department of Transportation resident engineer Todd Frost of Cody.

Riprap is rock or other material used to armor shorelines, streambeds, bridge abutments, pilings and other shoreline structures against scour—the removal of sediment caused by water movement—and water or ice erosion.

The Pat O'Hara Creek bridge was built in the 1960s.

While WYO 296 remains open for residents and travelers, a 13-ton weight limit restriction is in effect. WYDOT is putting portable digital messaging signs into place to get information to motorists.

Previously the bridge had no load restriction, meaning any truck legally permitted would have been safe to use the bridge.

Wind River Canyon (US 20) between Thermopolis and Boysen Reservoir was closed overnight May 29-30 but was reopened to one-way traffic the morning of May 30 for large rockfall just east of the Boysen State Park headquarters.

Day said 6 inches of rain fell around Thermopolis in May, which is 2.5 times the regular amount for that month.

Traffic is down to one-lane on a portion of US 14 just west of Dayton at mile marker 81 because of continued impacts at the “White Cross” slide area.

WYDOT has had 24-hour flagging operations in place since May 27, until the department can put traffic signals into place.

The White Cross slide area is scheduled for repair later this summer, but contractors will begin work on reconstruction as soon as possible.

While US 14 was closed recently, it was not because of the White Cross slide.

WYDOT closed US 14 May 28 to clear rock and mud from several locations between Steamboat Point and the Forest Service boundary. The road has reopened.

WYDOT also has had to perform maintenance and enforce closures in other areas of the state that had rockfall and mud slide issues.

WYDOT geologists will be assessing roads and bridges impacted by recent weather, mud slides and rock slides.

“Things can change quickly at this time of year,” WYDOT Chief Engineer Shelby Carlson said. “It’s a dynamic situation.”

Falling rock advisories remain in effect on a number of mountain highways in and around Wyoming, including:

• US 89 around Afton and Jackson,
• US 189 near Hoback Junction,
• WYO 22 west of Wilson,
• US 20/WYO 789 in the Wind River Canyon,
• US 14/16/20 west of Cody,
• US 16 east of Ten Sleep,
• US 14 east of Greybull,
• US 14A east of Lovell,
• and WYO 296 and WYO 212 northwest of Cody.

Moisture-related rockfall and mudslides impacted other Wyoming highways recently, but those roads have been reopened.

Heavy rains and snow May 27 led to rockslides west of Cody and east of Ten Sleep.

Maintenance crews responded west of Cody near Buffalo Bill Reservoir for a rockslide in an area where fencing was installed last year to catch future rockfall. While the slide damaged the fencing west of the tunnels, WYDOT Maintenance Foreman in Cody Jim Berry said: “The fencing did its job. Without the fencing, the rockfall would have impacted/closed the roadway for a longer period of time.”

On US 16, east of Ten Sleep, rocks had fallen on the road May 27, which temporarily closed the road. Rocks that fell during that incident were as large as a half-ton pickup truck.

WYDOT workers also removed smaller rocks from the highway on Chief Joseph Scenic Highway (WYO 296) which required temporary closures May 27.

The department is monitoring a number slides on Interstate 90 Northwest of Ranchester between mile markers 5 and 7. Those slides have not caused any closures at this point.

For current road conditions and closures, motorists are encouraged to monitor road conditions at www.wyoroad.info.

For more information, contact J.L. O’Brien, senior Public Affairs specialist, at 307-777-4439.