Wyoming highway fill gives way causing major traffic disruptions

A landslide that took place at milepost 12.8 of Wyoming’s Teton Pass during the night hours between Friday the 7^th and Saturday the 8^th of June has caused major traffic disruptions.

Furthermore, Teton Pass is designated as State Highway 22 and connects the Jackson Hole Valley in Wyoming to the Teton Valley of eastern Idaho.

Everything started on the morning of June 6, when a motorcycle crash prompted law enforcement on the site to notice notable cracking on the pavement.

The road was shortly after closed, at about 11 a.m., while engineers inspected the site and crews installed a temporary dura patch, reopening the highway later on the same day.

During the early morning hours of the next day, a mudslide breached through both lanes of the pass at milepost 15.

This mobilized crews to remove debris from the pavement, and engineers to identify the cause behind the landslide as spring runoff and excess saturation, which were solved with controlled drainage into a culvert.

Meanwhile, the temporary repair on the embankment of milepost 12.8 also showed signs of separation, which was immediately addressed by removing top pavement weight from the area and working on a realignment closer to the mountain, while figuring out means of permanent remediation.

The embankment finally gave way sometime during the night between the 7^th and 8^th of June, while thankfully nobody was harmed in the landslide, since the milepost 15 event had already disrupted traffic.

Site investigations are taking place in the area, while Governor Mark Gordon issued an Executive Order declaring an emergency.

It is estimated that Teton Pass is utilized by about 40% of the county’s workforce, while the alternative routes require about three times as much time to travel through.

A temporary detour is scheduled to be constructed around the collapsed embankment area, which transportation officials stated could take weeks to be completed.

The Wyoming Department of Transportation has released a plethora of footage from the area here.