JACKSON, Wyo. — Teton County, Bridger-Teton National Forest (BTNF) and the Wyoming Department of Transportation (WYDOT) celebrated the completion of the Swinging Bridge with a ribbon cutting ceremony on Dec. 13.
During the ceremony, participants practiced their swing dancing skills in honor of the bridge’s name, and to recognize the hard work of everyone involved in the project. BTNF is the landowner on the east side of the river, and WYDOT planned, engineered, managed and conducted daily construction inspections.
On Nov. 9, the Swinging Bridge opened to travelers earlier than anticipated, with the remaining work of grout filling under rails, cleanup and seed placement still needing to be completed. This work did not impact the structural integrity of the bridge, so travelers no longer had to make the longer commute driving south on US 26/89/189/191 to Henry’s Road.
Teton County wrote in the press release that the previous, single-lane Swinging Bridge was in place since 1960, and the original Swinging Bridge was built in 1938.
According to Teton County, the new bridge features two lanes, a separate pedestrian pathway and an improved design. WYDOT Resident Engineer Bob Hammond told Buckrail in November that the old Swinging Bridge was removed because it had weight and dimensional restrictions. The new, two-lane bridge is constructed with standard rails that are not load or size restricted.
“Planning work is ongoing to see if a new home can be found for the trusses from the previous Swinging Bridge,” Teton County said in the announcement.
The project, which was funded through the Federal Bridge Replacement Off-System Program through WYDOT, finished six months ahead of schedule and was $500,000 under budget. WYDOT covered 90% of the $10 million project, with Teton County covering 10% of the costs.
The Swinging Bridge replacement project was part of WYDOT’s Bridge Replacement Off System (BROS) program, a federally funded program to reduce the number of deficient off-system bridges, or what the Federal Highway Administration defines as “a highway bridge located on a public road.”
