Rain postpones Teton Pass repair closure by a week

JACKSON, Wyoming (WyoFile) — The Wyoming Department of Transportation has bumped back a weekend closure of Teton Pass, with the road now scheduled to shut down at 6 p.m. on June 27 and reopen at 6 a.m. on June 30, in time for the morning commute.

“We had some rain recently that put us behind schedule, and we wanted to make sure the crews were absolutely ready for the compressed weekend schedule,” WYDOT resident engineer Bob Hammond said in a Tuesday statement. “We didn’t want to schedule the closure during the week and disrupt commuters, so we opted to move the work to the following weekend.”

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Closing Wyoming’s busiest two-lane highway, even for a weekend, during the height of the summer tourism season will disrupt travel for thousands of commuters and visitors who rely on Teton Pass. But trying to do the work without a full closure would drag out that disruption, WYDOT says.

Once the closure commences, crews will work 24 hours a day to complete the job. Crews will be paving the final stretch of new roadway after a painstaking rebuild of the “Big Fill,” which collapsed last year.

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During the closure, motorists will have to detour through Swan Valley, Alpine and the Snake River Canyon. The mountain pass accommodates an average of 10,000 vehicles per day.

“I know that rescheduling the work will impact people’s daily lives, but we want to be sure we are ready when the weekend comes,” Hammond said in Tuesday’s update.

The highway will be closed between the Coal Creek Campground on the west side and the gate at mile marker 7 on the east side. People can still bike and otherwise recreate on the east side of Teton Pass and access the Coal Creek Campground on the west side. But WYDOT is warning walkers and bikers to beware of heavy trucks and not descend from the top of the pass down the west side toward the work site.

The rebuild follows the original, more gentle contour that uses fill material to create a bridge between two hills, hence the name “Big Fill.” Once the pass reopens after the rebuilt curve is freshly paved, only some minor cleanup will remain.

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