Wyoming Told Them Not To Build The Highway There

What a dumb place to put a highway. It's not like those in the Federal Government weren't told. But they build it there anyway. So why do they close the loop around the problem spot as well?

Down across the lower or southern part of Wyoming, there is a seventy-seven-mile stretch of Interstate 80 in southern Wyoming that has gates across it. The gates are there to stop traffic from using that stretch when it gets too snowy or windy. Still, drivers run that gate.

The gates are on either side of Laramie and Walcott Junction.

There are not many places along America's interstate highway system that have gates to close it when the weather gets bad. That gives you an idea of how bad the weather along this stretch can get.

Interstate 80 across Wyoming opened on Saturday in October of 1970, with a ribbon-cutting and four hundred people. It closed on Wednesday because of the bad weather they were warned about.

So, how about a road around it? There is a stretch of road that was built along the first intercontinental railroad. It was Lincoln Highway, the first coast-to-coast highway. Those were the proven routes.

But they close that road during bad weather, too. WHY? The answer is that the much smaller old Lincoln Highway can't handle all of that heavy traffic, so both roads are shut down.

The reason the interstate goes the way it does is that the Interstate Highway System was built to take the shortest route. The builders were warned about how bad that one stretch was, but they ignored it.

Recently, there has been talk about improving the old Lincoln Highway so traffic can keep moving during bad weather. So far, it is just talk.