Wyoming’s Jackson WyoFile In order to accommodate the morning commute, the Wyoming Department of Transportation has rescheduled the Teton Pass weekend shutdown. The road will now close at 6 p.m. on June 27 and reopen at 6 a.m. on June 30.
In a statement released on Tuesday, WYDOT resident engineer Bob Hammond stated, “We wanted to make sure the crews were absolutely ready for the compressed weekend schedule because we had some rain recently that put us behind schedule.” We decided to postpone the work until the next weekend because we didn’t want to interfere with commuters by scheduling the closure during the week.
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Thousands of commuters and tourists who depend on Teton Pass may experience travel disruptions if Wyoming’s largest two-lane roadway is closed, even for a weekend, during the peak traffic season of the summer. However, WYDOT claims that attempting to complete the work without a complete shutdown would prolong that disturbance.
Crews will labor around the clock to finish the job once the shutdown starts. Following a laborious reconstruction of the Big Fill, which collapsed last year, workers will be paving the last section of the new road.
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Drivers will need to take detours through the Snake River Canyon, Alpine, and Swan Valley while the road is closed. Ten thousand vehicles a day on average can travel over the mountain pass.
In Tuesday’s update, Hammond stated, “We want to make sure we are ready when the weekend comes, even though I know that rescheduling the work will impact people’s daily lives.”
Between the gate at mile marker 7 on the east side and the Coal Creek Campground on the west side, the highway will be closed. On the east side of Teton Pass, people can still ride and engage in other recreational activities. On the west side, they can reach the Coal Creek Campground. However, WYDOT is cautioning cyclists and pedestrians to avoid descending from the top of the pass down the west side toward the work site due to the presence of large vehicles.
Big Fill gets its moniker from the rebuild’s adherence to the original, softer contour that employs fill material to make a bridge between two hills. Only minor cleanup will be needed once the repaired curve is repaved and the pass reopens.
