Spring storm brings out the best in WYDOT maintenance crews

The Wyoming Department of Transportation brought in extra workers and equipment to battle a late May snowstorm that dumped more than 2 feet of snow on some parts of Interstate 80.

The record-breaking May 18 and 19 storm caused sections of I-80 to close for up to 36 hours, with crews seeing the worst conditions in the southeast portion of the state. Crews encountered snowdrifts, wind, heavy wet snow and other wintry conditions.

On a 25-mile section starting near Vedauwoo and heading east toward Cheyenne, crews encountered the worst of the conditions with snowdrifts up to 4 feet.

“The drifts would be bad for about a half a mile long, then they wouldn’t be too bad and then they would get bad again,” said Don Bridges, area maintenance supervisor. “This is probably one of the worst storms I’ve seen in a while in May.”

WYDOT brought in snowplows and crews from Arlington, Laramie, Saratoga, Elk Mountain, Chugwater, Torrington and Rawlins to help. WYDOT hired Simon Contractors Co., of Laramie, and Knife River, of Cheyenne, to help with snow removal.

Because of the large amounts of snow, Simon Contractors brought in two loaders and a motor grader, and Knife River brought in six loaders and two motor graders. The loaders the two contractors used are for mining operations and are significantly larger than any of WYDOT’s loaders.

Workers used a total of eight loaders, four motor graders, eight snowplows and two rotary plows to clear the snow.

“This was a cooperative effort not only between crews in southeast Wyoming and throughout the state, but also with our local contractors,” said Tom DeHoff, District 1 district engineer. “Our people worked tirelessly getting the interstate ready and cleared of snow so motorists could travel and safely arrive at their destinations.”

Wyoming typically gets snow in May, with some of the previous larger storms occurring close to Mother’s Day, said Don Day, meteorologist with Day Weather. May is usually the wettest month for the state.

“It’s not uncommon for us to get snow in May, but it is uncommon for us to get snow this late in May,” Day said.

The storm dumped 32 inches of snow near Buford, between 20 to 30 inches near  Harriman, between 14 to 16 inches in and around Cheyenne, 12 inches in Laramie and 12 inches in east Laramie County to Burns, Day said.

WYDOT also had to close parts of the interstate leading up to the impacted area to ensure motorists had access to fuel, food, lodging and parking.

When a community reaches its capacity, WYDOT will close sections of the road to divert motorists to the next community to get needed services. Motorists may see fair road conditions in those areas, but conditions a few miles away may be too dangerous to travel until the weather improves and crews clear the roads.

During the storm, motorists relied heavily on WYDOT’s 511 Road and Travel Information website, which provides text- and map-based road and travel information.

On May 18, the site had 12.7 million hits, and on May 19, it had 13.8 million hits, data from WYDOT’s Transportation Management Center indicated. On May 14, a day when the state didn’t have any weather events, the website had about 1.8 million hits. Those figures include hits of the map and other web pages.

May 18 and 19 weren’t the only days motorists used the site heavily. During a storm on Feb. 23, the site had 16 million hits, Transportation Management Center data indicated.

The public uses the 511 website frequently throughout the year. In 2016, the website broke a record with more than 1 billion total hits.

Motorists can visit the 511 website to see all the available features and information available for road and travel information, or to download the 511 app.