Chief Joseph Slide Work Resumes This Week

An emergency landslide repair project begins this week on Highway 296 near Cody.

The $363,000 project started this week on the Chief Joseph Scenic Highway northwest of Cody. According to Wyoming Department of Transportation maintenance engineer Lyle Lamb of Basin, the slide repairs are occurring at milepost 27.5, about eighteen and a half miles west of the highway’s junction with Highway 120.

WYDOT maintenance workers are assisting with traffic control and other efforts on the project, which is expected to take several weeks to complete.

Lamb said this soil nailing project is designed to be a permanent fix for the landslide that damaged the road last spring, and it is intended to keep the roadway as safe as possible into the future. Motorists should expect minor traffic delays.

Following its work on the slide repairs, the contractor is scheduled to participate in permanent repairs of the Pat O’Hara Creek bridge less than a mile from the intersection of WY296 and WY120. The Pat O’Hara Creek bridge repairs were necessary after erosion from high-water runoff threatened the bridge this spring.