Contractor to remove big rocks from Wind River Canyon highway curve

Posted 5/4/16

The $41,000 project is scheduled to begin Thursday about 10 miles south of Thermopolis at milepost 121.9 in the Wind River Canyon. 

The rock removal project is dependent upon favorable weather, according to Wyoming Department of Transportation …

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Contractor to remove big rocks from Wind River Canyon highway curve

Posted

An emergency rock scaling project will focus on removing large rocks from a hillside above U.S. Highway 20/Wyoming Highway 789. 

The $41,000 project is scheduled to begin Thursday about 10 miles south of Thermopolis at milepost 121.9 in the Wind River Canyon. 

The rock removal project is dependent upon favorable weather, according to Wyoming Department of Transportation area maintenance supervisor Clint Huckfeldt of Thermopolis.

The highway curve where the rocks are located inside Wind River Canyon is known locally as Big Windy; WYDOT has a live web cam stationed there to provide real-time information to travelers at www.wyoroad.info.

The rocks were exposed through erosion and associated rockfall during April rain and snow events in Hot Springs and Fremont counties.

GeoStabilization International of Grand Junction, Colo., is the contractor on the rock scaling project. The GSI project involves moving the large rocks to edge of the highway, where WyDOT workers will break them into smaller rocks, then remove and haul them out of the canyon.

Huckfeldt said the project is scheduled to begin Thursday and should be complete by Wednesday, May 11. 

“Travelers should expect delays of up to 20 minutes when the rock scaling project begins,” he said.

In the meantime, WyDOT’s Thermopolis maintenance crew is working this week in the Big Windy curve area, attempting to clear some recent rockfall so the contractor may access the work area and complete its work. Traffic delays are expected during this work as well, Huckfeldt said.

National Weather Service officials in Riverton called Huckfeldt Monday with news about an upcoming storm event this coming weekend. NWS is forecasting weekend rains that could bring 1-2.5 inches of rain to Fremont and Hot Springs counties between Friday and Sunday, May 6-8.

“Rain volumes such as these could cause problems for the contractor and WYDOT,” Huckfeldt said. He said he plans to continue monitoring the weather forecast through the week.

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