Since the rapid response to a landslide closing it last year, the Teton Pass corridor has continued to accelerate its role as a key commuting route connecting Driggs, Idaho, and Jackson.
"It was really a great example of what you can do when you have the attention and the resources towards the problem," said Charlotte Frei, transportation manager for Teton County, Wyoming, describing how the landslide focused everyone and delivered results.
The pass was reopened three weeks after the catastrophic failure.
Wyoming Highway 22 unites Teton County in Wyoming with Teton County in Idaho. Increasingly in this "Wydaho" region, the Driggs-to- Jackson-and-back routine involves so many locals that the two towns in two states feel bound together, with Idaho offering bedroom communities for a large part of the Jackson workforce.
On Tuesday, county commissioners from both Teton Counties were updated on work associated with the BUILD Grant Project transportation improvements, including bus service anchored by new transit centers on either side of Teton Pass.
Driggs-Jackson
This commuting corridor's critical importance is underscored by a 2023 Housing Supply Plan prepared for the Teton County Commission, which showed that about 40% of employees commute to Teton County from outside areas.
The commuting rates vary significantly by employer, with some agencies seeing particularly high percentages of their workforce traveling from Idaho and other areas.
The Sheriff's office had 58% of its 73 staff members commuting to work, while St. John's Health had 34% of its 890 staff commuting, according to the report.
Bike Trail Fate
Teton Pass is one of two major commuting routes for the local workforce, but it's also a recreation area, where locals hope to see more bike access.
During the joint meeting Tuesday, the commissioners touched on ways skyrocketing construction costs might prevent progress on plans for a 3-mile bike path extension on the Idaho side of Teton Pass.
"The price tag just went through the roof,” said Teton (Wyoming) County Commissioner Wes Gardner.
Some of the funding could come through the BUILD Grant, but a significant amount would be locally generated by property taxes in Teton County, Wyoming.
Gardner pointed out no decision has been made about extending the bike path, but he said of local matching funds, "If we're spending $8 million to build 3.6 miles of a bike path, that doesn't connect to another Wyoming bike path. It's kind of hard to justify, you know?"
Teton County Wyoming’s public works director, Heather Overholser, told Cowboy State Daily that the project faces funding challenges given, “A reduction in revenue, due to property tax reductions in the state of Wyoming.”
“The Teton Pass Trail project has seen costs balloon from approximately $4 million to over $13 million,” she said. "The combination of increased costs plus a reduction in revenue makes it very challenging to complete this project.”
Transit Technology Eliminated
The BUILD Grant Project lists "signal timing for transit vehicles" as one of its key program components designed to improve transit efficiency along the corridor.
But Teton County said it needs to cut that part of its grant obligation. It would have funded technology to coordinate the timing of traffic lights to the peak rush-hour needs of local buses, so commuting would be incentivized by a traffic light system that’s rigged to favor bus travel.
"This is what we call green lights for START buses,” said Gardner, referring to buses run by Southern Teton Area Rapid Transit.
“So as START buses move around their route, there's a transponder on the buses that lets the traffic lights know kind of where they are and then creates green lights for their routing,” he said.
Transportation manager Frei explained the broader concept of “TSP,” which stands for Traffic Signal Prioritization.
"A lot of aspects of our infrastructure are static or fixed, but signals are an opportunity for us to manage infrastructure operations really dynamically,” said Frei. “So that you can take advantage of when you have more capacity at different times of day, or maybe you just have different priorities at different times of day based on who's moving and where they're trying to go.”
As for all the improvements to transportation still rolling forward, Commissioner Gardner said, “It’s kind of it's one of those things that you're going to look back in a couple of years when it's all done and go, ‘Wow, this is really nice. I wonder how they did this?’”
David Madison can be reached at david@cowboystatedaily.com.
