Seasonally closed Snowy Range Pass opens to traffic on May 25

The scenic Snowy Range Pass between Centennial and Saratoga opened to traffic on May 25.

The Wyoming Department of Transportation is expected to reopened the Snowy Range Pass (WYO 130) on Wednesday morning after clearing snow from the seasonally closed road since early May.

“Everything went smoothly this year and the pass is now open for the season,” said Tim McGary, district maintenance engineer in Laramie. “Although we ran into some maintenance issues with some of our rotary snow blowers, we were able to get them all up and running so we could continue on schedule with reopening the pass.”

WYDOT closes the Snowy Range, Battle Pass (WYO 70) between Baggs and Encampment, and US 14A between Burgess Junction and Lovell in late fall because of the amount of snow those areas get during the winter.

WYO 70 is expected to reopen at the beginning of June, and US 14A reopened on May 20.

WYDOT crews tackled the work on WYO 130 from both sides with the Laramie crew starting on the east side and the Saratoga crew starting on the west side.

“Both crews work on their respective sides and then usually meet around the middle,” McGary said.

Each year the crews encounter snow drifts, which could be 8 feet to as high as 20 feet. To clear the snow, crews use dozers first to remove the deeper snow and get it down to about 5-feet high. They then use rotary snow blowers followed by snowplows.

“We encountered some pretty high drifts along the pass,” said Tye Fix, maintenance area supervisor for Laramie. “But typically, the Laramie side gets less snow than the Saratoga side. The Saratoga crew typically encounters more snow.”

Although the pass is open, there are high banks of snow in many areas off the road, which will affect sight distances for motorists. Motorists should drive carefully through the area because melting snow may freeze and cause icy patches on the road.

Now that WYO 130 is cleared and reopened, the Saratoga crew will move to WYO 70 to help clear that section. The Saratoga crew will start on the east side of WYO 70 and meet up with the Baggs crew, which will work on the west side.