JACKSON — State officials continue to scramble for a solution after a “catastrophic failure” of Wyoming Highway 22 over Teton Pass overnight Friday washed away a huge section of the lifeline corridor between Jackson, Wyoming, and Victor, Idaho.
The Wyoming Department of Transportation is attempting to mitigate two issues on the mountain pass.
A mudslide at the head of Talbot Canyon at milepost 15 is causing drainage concerns. Crews there are mitigating the damage while geologists and engineers work on an improved drainage plan by installing a box culvert.
This work is taking place simultaneous with the larger concern — the major landslide at milepost 12.8 that has whisked away a large chunk of Highway 22 down the mountainside.
“We’ve got two different problems up there — a landslide and a mudslide,” said WYDOT resident engineer Bob Hammond.
WYDOT is flying the area today to complete terrain contour mapping and elevation survey. Hammond said a temporary fix is the next step as a more permanent solution is also being explored.
First, A Temp Fix
Hammond added that department geologists and engineers are confident they can build a safe, temporary detour around the slide area using local fill material and paving two temporary lanes.
The temporary detour should be open to the public “within a few weeks.” Weight and width restrictions will prohibit 18-wheel traffic for the foreseeable future.
Expediated mitigation was made possible by Gov. Mark Gordon’s emergency declaration. That executive order paves the way for federal money.
“We certainly want to thank the governor, the Federal Highway Administration, the Idaho Transportation Department, the Wyoming Office of Homeland Security, Evans Construction and the U.S. Forest Service for their quick response, teamwork and dependability in our time of need,” said WYDOT Director Darin Westby in a prepared statement.
Not WYDOT’s First Rodeo
Hammond added that the section that gave way Friday night was a known trouble spot.
“The native material underneath the road fill has been sitting there since the ’60s. It’s held since then, but it’s been a known problem for a while,” he said. “That part of the roadway moves a little every so often and we would patch it.”
The fix will involve figuring out a way to partially eliminate a hairpin turn while still mitigating the steep mountain grade in that section.
“That hairpin added length to the road purposely. You need that to deal with the elevation, which is already 10% for most of the road,” Hammond said. “We can't have a road that is, like, 20% grade.”
Hammond added snowmelt and heavy rain were the cause of the slide.
Both are accounted for when designing and maintaining the highway over the Tetons, but “sometimes you just never know what is going to happen with the ground,” Hammond said.
WYDOT also expects to relax closures on the pass to allow for recreation. Both Wyoming and Idaho users frequent popular trailheads on the west and east side of the incident. Areas along the pass are regularly used for mountain biking, hiking and camping.
The Wyoming Transportation Commission on Monday announced it will convene a special meeting Tuesday at 1:30 p.m. via Zoom to discuss ongoing strategies.
Crippling Commute
What is a fairly commonplace headache event for commuters in winter has become an unthinkable nightmare for the town of Jackson.
Jackson has two bedroom communities. The high cost of living and lack of affordable housing has driven a significant portion of the workforce to Alpine and further south (collectively known as Star Valley).
A larger chunk of workers live in Victor and Driggs in Idaho (known broadly as Teton Valley).
Teton Pass serves not only as a mere convenience, travel over it is a vital economic concern. Of the two dozen Teton County Sheriff’s Office deputies, for instance, three live in Jackson.
Half the rest commute from Teton Valley, the other half from Star Valley. Nearly half the Jackson Police Department force also commutes from Idaho.
St. John’s Health, the valley’s largest employer, is also heavily dependent on a workforce commuting from Teton Valley. Spokesperson Karen Connelly said an estimated one-third of the hospital’s employees drive the pass to work. St. John’s is actively assessing the impact of the closure and discussing short-term housing solutions.
“With many employees working 12-hour shifts to provide a 24/7 hospital operation, there are some unique aspects to the impact of the Teton Pass closure on St. John’s Health. About 20% of [our] employees are impacted, including about 115 team members whose roles require them to be onsite in east Jackson or at one of our local clinics,” Connelly said.
Connelly added that several assistance programs are being discussed including temporary housing support and potential emergency housing/travel stipends.
“Until we have a chance to better understand what is needed, we will be leaning on our sleep rooms — newly renovated in a wing of the former Living Center — for team members who choose to stay in Jackson between shifts rather than make the trek back and forth,” she added.
Both commutes from Teton Valley and Star Valley feature noteworthy traffic during rush hours in the morning and afternoon. The alternate reroute to get motorists from Teton Valley, Idaho, to Jackson takes significantly longer.
The typical car trip from Victor to Jackson is 24 miles covered in about 35-40 minutes. With the closure of Highway 22 over Teton Pass, that detour through Swan Valley to Alpine and then up the Snake River Canyon is 85 total miles with an estimated 1 hour and 41 minutes of driving time.
Detour To Disaster?
Worse, the additional volume will take motorists through an already heavily trafficked corridor in the Snake River Canyon — the stretch of Highway 89 from Alpine to Hoback Junction.
It is a major chokepoint and a commute nicknamed “The Alpine 500” that’s notorious for generating road rage.
“We are not really concerned with the additional traffic volume,” Hammond said. “The Snake River Canyon was reconstructed in 2005. There are a couple of passing zones for those that feel urgent. Yes, there will be more cars in that single file line, but once past Hoback you are multilane from there to [Jackson]. We are confident this route can handle the additional traffic volume.”
Wyoming Highway Patrol Sgt. Andrew Jackson is braced for the worst just the same.
“I just got off the phone with my boss and we were talking about trying to bring in additional guys to cover. We are stretched so thin right now,” Jackson said. “We are already seeing 20-minute delays at the roundabout (Hoback Junction), which is unreal. I would say, by my observation, triple the volume of traffic in the canyon already. I think, before long, we are going to have to have someone directing traffic at the light in Alpine.”
Once motorists reach Hoback Junction 14 miles south of Jackson, the trip gets less congested thanks to the recent widening of Highway 191 to four lanes.
But an incident in the tight canyon could be a gamechanger. Certain spots on the highway are already difficult for emergency responders to access. Inviting twice the regular traffic into the corridor could be a potential disaster.
“An accident down there now still backs up traffic. All we can advise is for people to take their time and don't be in a rush,” Hammond added.
“You have RVs going 40 mph in there with limited passing lanes mixed with everyday commuters trying to get to work. It creates a recipe for disaster,” Jackson said. “We are in there every day trying to target the most aggressive drivers, the ones making bad decisions, but it’s frustrating.”
Traffic analysts and designers talk a lot about redundancy and emergency access. With Teton Pass closed, those crucial aspects severely cripple ingress and egress to Jackson, a town accessed by just three highways to begin with.
What Won't Work
A 3-year-old study conducted by WYDOT found an average daily traffic count of more than 3,500 vehicles traversing Snake River Canyon on any given day. That number is likely much higher in 2024.
Northbound traffic from 6:30-8:30 a.m. is as close to bumper-to-bumper as it gets. Add the additional rerouted traffic from Highway 22 — already one of the busiest two-lane highways in the state — and the commute is going to approach the scale of Southern California gridlock.
Would WYDOT consider a reversible one-way traffic designation during rush hours to alleviate congestion? Hammond said probably not.
“I would say no. Yes, commuters are a major user of that road, but we also have other users that go the other direction,” Hammond said. “I don't think it would be feasible to hold them up for hours.”
Could WYDOT use Old Pass Road in the interim?
The original route over the Tetons connecting Victor to Jackson was established by wagon trains as early as the 1880s. By 1913, an official road was built that allowed motorized traffic. That road was in use until 1969 when the current Highway 22 was constructed.
Today, Old Pass Road serves as a pathway for bikers, hikers and other recreationalists. Vegetation ekes its way through crumbling asphalt in some sections but the road is still serviceable for automobile traffic.
“We actually discussed that this morning with the Forest Service. That road is used as an access road by Bonneville Power,” Hammond said. “But in reality, it hasn’t been in public use since the 1960s and we don't feel it could be safely used. At best it would be one lane. There’s no guardrails, no delineators. It’s just not safe for public use.”
And forget the possibility of a tunnel.
Every time Teton Pass is closed for any length of time, discussion about a potential tunnel option is rekindled. It’s been studied. The price tag makes it a short conversation.
“A tunnel is really not feasible. It’s about a mile and a quarter that would need to be built with $800 million to $1 billion to build,” Hammond said. “Plus, the money to maintain it. I don't think a tunnel option is on the table.”
Jake Nichols can be reached at jake@cowboystatedaily.com.
