JACKSON, Wyo. — Complications during a crash cleanup on US89 Snake River Canyon resulted in extended delays for drivers during commuter hours on Wednesday.
The Wyoming Department of Transportation (WYDOT) scheduled a closure of US89 to extract a semi-truck that went off the road on Tuesday evening, but clean-up took triple the expected time.
“On June 13, a southbound pickup truck drifted into the northbound lanes, causing a collision with a semi-truck near mile marker 131,” said WYDOT. “The semi-truck went off the road and crashed down the embankment. Due to the need for multiple tow companies for the extraction, the vehicle was left overnight and the crash clean-up was scheduled for the next afternoon.”
Clean-up activities began in the early afternoon of June 14, but unexpectedly extended into commuter hours, causing congestion and extensive delays for drivers in the canyon.
“What we were expecting to be a one hour job, turned into three hours,” Wyoming Highway Patrol Lt. Matt Brackin said.
The Wyoming Highway Patrol initiated a 511 Notify Alert at 4:29 p.m. Wednesday to alert drivers of the clean-up activities and subsequent delays in the Snake River Canyon.
The Wyoming Highway Patrol (WHP) is reviewing the incident and process, hoping to find ways to improve the process. WHP hopes to make crash clean-ups, especially in commuter routes, more streamlined and less intrusive for drivers.
“We’ve already had an after-action review with the tow companies to specifically address ways of avoiding impacts to commuters for closures in the future,” Lt. Brackin said.
