Green River Leaders 'Ecstatic’ Tunnel Set To Reopen After Deadly 26-Vehicle Crash

 Green River leaders are “ecstatic” that the westbound interstate tunnel tattered by a deadly 26-vehicle pileup in February is scheduled to reopen to traffic by late November, the city spokesman told Cowboy State Daily on Thursday.

“Well I can tell you from City Hall, we are ecstatic by that news,” Green River spokesman Steve Core said in a phone interview.

Town authorities understand that eastbound traffic will flow through Green River for about a week while the eastbound tunnel, which has been handling head-to-head traffic since Feb. 20, is reconfigured for eastbound-only passage, said Core.

Routing interstate shippers and travelers through the town is tough on its traffic and infrastructure, Core said in prior interviews.

But they’ll prepare for that, he said.

The timing is encouraging too, said Core, noting that the tunnels are set to be open in both directions just ahead of winter.

The Catastrophe

The Wyoming Department of Transportation’s District 3, which serves southwest Wyoming, announced the reopening Thursday.

The Interstate 80 westbound tunnel overlooking Green River has been closed since Feb. 14.

On that morning, a Toyota Tundra lost control leaving the tunnel, spun out, and prompted a pileup that clogged the tunnel, ignited a fire and killed three people, according to the National Transportation Safety Board’s preliminary report on the wreck.  

Authorities routed interstate traffic through the town of Green River, population 11,825, while establishing a two-way route through the eastbound tunnel.

The eastbound tunnel opened to two-way traffic six days later.  

A $16.43 million rebuild of the westbound tunnel has been ongoing since.

Though the westbound tunnel is expected to route travelers by late November, that will involve a reduced speed limit, as only about half the lighting may be installed by that point, Stephanie Harsha, District 3 public relations specialist, told Cowboy State Daily on Thursday.

Supply delays for electrical equipment are more common than for other equipment associated with road projects, she said, since lighting and other electrical components are often custom made to fit the project.

The department estimates the whole project will be complete by next June, though “there’s a chance it’ll be done sooner than that,” said Harsha.

Winter’s approach is “why they worked really hard to get half the lights into the westbound tunnel,” she added.

Harsha said the Wyoming Transportation Commission awarded the contract to Casper Electric on July 17 of this year.   

That Mountain Is OK

The mountain didn’t crumble in the catastrophe, said Harsha, adding that WYDOT’s geology team and engineers performed an “extensive” evaluation of the geological features and concluded there was no risk of tunnel collapse.

A state lawmaker from Rock Springs, who was in the Wyoming Capitol on the day of the tragedy, announced during the legislative session that the tunnel was collapsing.

Though it was not the case, Harsha said she understands why so many people had that impression at the time. 

First responders who were in the tunnel likely saw falling debris — components of the tunnel’s liner — that gave the impression of a collapse.

“It was a reasonable thought for somebody to have, had they been inside it,” she said.

Cowboy State Daily entered the tunnel three days after the incident and encountered ankle-deep debris, charred walls and ceiling, gutted vehicles and acrid, dense air.  

By that time, authorities had allowed some crash survivors to reenter the tunnel to retrieve their vehicles.

Clair McFarland can be reached at clair@cowboystatedaily.com.