About three weeks after a landslide prompted officials to close a major highway near Grand Teton National Park, a detour has opened to public traffic, according to the Wyoming Department of Transportation.
In early June, a crack developed in Wyoming Highway 22 at the Teton Pass and officials closed the road for patch work. It reopened to traffic but just two days later the road collapsed.
A paved, two-lane detour opened Friday with traffic limited to vehicles under 60,000 pounds gross vehicle weight.
“(Department) professional geologists have evaluated the stability of the detour roadway. Geotechnical analysis confirms that the temporary detour meets or exceeds minimum requirements as outlined in guidance from the Federal Highway Administration,” the transportation department said in a news release.
The Teton Pass corridor “serves as a critical commuter route and facilitates the transport of goods and services that are lifelines to the growing regional economies in Wyoming and Idaho,” according to the US Department of Transportation.
According to a graphic on the Facebook page of the Teton County office of the transportation department, the detour was built just inside the section of Highway 22 that collapsed.
The new road is about 600 feet long and has a sharper curvature than the highway section that collapsed. New drainage was added.
Engineers and others are redesigning the original section of highway and the transportation department’s goal is to have a rebuilt road before winter.