Grant Awarded for Beartooth Highway Project
Written by Andrew-Rossi on March 21, 2018
A long-awaited Wyoming state highway project will soon be underway.
The U.S. Department of Transportation recently awarded the Wyoming Department of Transportation a $16.6 million grant to reconstruct the final 1.6 mile segment of the Beartooth Highway.
The grant will bring the entire stretch of US 212 up to modern standards and will complete the reconstruction of the full 67-mile length of the highway.
On Monday, Yellowstone National Park Superintendent Dan Wenk told a gathering of Cody Chamber members that the decision came as a relief to Park officials, since he said once the road is brought up to current standards, the state of Wyoming has indicated it will take over the maintenance of that stretch of highway.
Wenk says that it costs the Park almost a half million dollars to keep that stretch of highway plowed and maintained each year.
This final phase of reconstruction extends for just over a mile and a half, from just west of the Clay Butte Lookout turnoff. The work will include widening the road, improving road surface and drainage, replacing substandard bridges, constructing retaining walls, adding guardrails and signage, improving shoulders for bicyclists and adding roadside pullouts.