Snake River bridge project garners award

WYDOT wins national environmental award for Snake River Bridge project

By Stephanie Harsha

The Wyoming Department of Transportation has been awarded a 2022 Environmental Excellence Award (EEA) in the category of Ecosystems, Habitat and Wildlife from the Federal Highway Administration for their efforts on the Snake River Bridge reconstruction and wildlife crossing integration project. WYDOT, along with their partners from the Wyoming Game and Fish, Teton County and other community organizations, designed a project for the replacement of a critical bridge on Wyoming Highway 22 over the Snake River, near Jackson, and expanded it to accommodate local and migrating wildlife within the Greater Yellowstone National Park ecosystem.

When planning the bridge replacement, WYDOT proactively pursued stakeholder and community engagement to shape and expand the project to strategically address a diverse set of challenges, including wildlife-vehicle collisions and congestion. The project will extend the Snake River Bridge to accommodate a wildlife underpass, and will include three additional wildlife crossings that will facilitate safer wildlife movements, especially for large animals such as moose, elk, and deer.

WYDOT also is implementing additional improvements that will enhance recreation and natural resource education and access in the nearby Rendezvous Park with work that will include increasing wetlands along ponds, constructing a boardwalk and deepening a community swimming hole. The purpose of the improvements was to support positive public interaction with the natural environment while addressing the needs of the ecosystem.

“We appreciate the recognition and affirmation from the FHWA that this is a special project that The project spans the Snake River near will benefit not just Jackson on WYO 22. the transportation of motorists but of wildlife, too,” said WYDOT director Luke Reiner. “I am grateful to our partners who were instrumental in shaping this project into an award-winning success.”

The Snake River Bridge project will be let to contract this fall and construction could take place as early as spring of 2022.

Since 1995, the Environmental Excellence Awards have been recognizing leaders across the country whose outstanding contributions to environmental stewardship and partnerships that go above and beyond traditional transportation project outcomes. n