MARCH 24, 2025|
Photo – A bridge on Highway 130 – Bigfoot99 file photo
As winter begins to fade and construction season approaches, Carbon County officials are looking at upcoming bridge replacement projects.
At the March 18th Board of Carbon County Commissioners meeting, Road and Bridge Superintendent Kandis Fritz announced work on the County Road One bridge is complete. Fritz said she will meet with the contractor to fix any remaining small issues. Aside from that, the Road and Bridge office considers the work finished.
Fritz said she’ll accept the project is officially completed after the Thursday meeting.
Next, the road and bridge superintendent said she has scheduled a bridge project over Difficulty Creek on County Road 270, northeast of Hanna. Fritz said when work begins in early April, the road will be closed to all traffic.
Fritz said if emergency crews need to respond to a call on County Road 270, they must take Highway 30 to Country Road 121. The road and bridge superintendent stated that the closure will affect only two property owners, who likely should not be using the bridge in the first place.
Fritz said she does not know how long County Road 270 will be closed. The road and bridge superintendent explained that creating a detour around the construction site would have been prohibitively expensive and would have saved only about 10 minutes of commute time.
The next order of business was to have the board sign a contract with the Wyoming Department of Transportation to conduct research and design work to replace bridges on County Road 680, over the Encampment River, and County Road Three, over the Medicine Bow River. The contract, which is part of WYDOT’s Bridge Replacement Off System, or BROS, requires the county to contribute 9.51% toward the grant match.
Fritz said the cost to have WYDOT design replacements for the county’s last two historical bridges is likely to be around $10,000.
Fritz asked the board to sign the WYDOT BROS recon contract. The motion was approved by every member of the board, except for Commissioner John Johnson, who owns a ranch on County Road Three.
Last January, when the road and bridge supervisor first proposed replacing the two bridges, Commissioner Johnson objected to the inclusion of the bridge on County Road Three. The commissioner said the bridge does not receive enough traffic to warrant a complete replacement and that he doesn’t want it to seem like he’s supporting the bridge replacement for personal gain. Commissioner Johnson moved to only include the County Road 680 bridge on the BROS list.
Commissioner Johnson was outvoted by his fellow board members.
At the county commissioners meeting on March 18, Fritz said one federally funded bridge replacement project is coming up in Encampment. Fritz stated she is collaborating with a nearby landowner to secure an easement, as the new bridge will be positioned approximately 50 to 60 feet beyond the existing right-of-way.
The road and bridge superintendent said the old bridge will remain in place while the new bridge is under construction. However, Fritz reported that Wyoming Game and Fish issued a statement saying construction of the bridge should not disturb the local wildlife, which, if followed, would drastically prolong construction.
Commissioner Johnson asked what authority Game and Fish has over the project. Fritz said she asked WYDOT the same question. The road and bridge superintendent pointed out that the land around the bridge is open to a variety of winter activities. The state agency only appears to object to the construction project.
Fritz explained winter is the best season for bridge construction, as the North Platte River reaches its lowest point during that time.
Commissioner John Espy said the Game and Fish letter is merely a recommendation, and not a requirement.
