A landslide in the Teton Range destroyed part of a highway connecting Idaho with Jackson, Wyoming, forcing officials to close the road indefinitely Saturday just as the region was poised to enter its summer tourist season.
The Wyoming Department of Transportation said in a statement Saturday that a portion of Teton Pass had “catastrophically collapsed” but that no one was injured. The highway west of Jackson had been closed before the collapse and crews were working to build a route around a section of the road that had cracked days earlier.
The department said it expected a lengthy closure. Wyoming Gov. Mark Gordon said in a separate statement that geologists and engineers would “develop a long-term solution to rebuild the road.”
Even a brief closure would pose major logistical challenges for the region, in part because the road leads to Jackson Hole, Teton County’s main tourist hub. Travel and tourism is Wyoming’s second-largest industry, and the county brought in about $1.7 billion in travel-related spending in 2022, according to the Jackson Hole Convention and Visitors Bureau.
“We know this highway is a lifeline for commuters, deliveries, medical access and tourism, especially with alternatives limited and summer fast approaching,” state Transportation Commissioner Darin Westby said in a separate statement.
“The department’s engineers, surveyors and geologists mobilized quickly to try to preserve as much of the highway as possible, but a catastrophic collapse was inevitable,” Westby said.
The Jackson Hole Chamber of Commerce says on its website that travelers can reach the Jackson area from the west via two other roads that run through the Snake River Valley, but the detours can add more than an hour to driving time, local news outlet Wyofile reported.
The collapsed section of Wyoming Highway 22 was closed earlier this week after a crack appeared in the roadway and it reopened after crews repaired the crack, but was closed again after another landslide occurred a few miles away, flooding the road with mud and debris, the Department of Transportation said.
Crews were still working to remove mud and debris, the department said in a statement Saturday.
