WYDOT closes US 26/89 in Snake River Canyon due to fissures

UPDATE: Fri. 8:00 p.m., US26/89 Alpine Jct to Hoback Jct: Closed BOTH DIRECTIONS due to the road damage. The Facebook page for the Teton County Sheriff’s Office indicates the highway may re-open noon Saturday. ———- ORGINAL STORY: Large fissures are beginning to develop about 2 miles south of Hoback Junction at milepost 139 on U.S. Highway 26/89 through the Snake River Canyon. Maintenance crews have found fissures as wide as 4 inches and as deep as 2 feet in the pavement in the Deer Creek Landslide Mitigation area. The section of movement is in the northbound lanes, roughly 100 feet long and 30 feet wide. WYDOT Maintenance Foreman Bruce Daigle said the movement is being caused by saturated material under the pavement, due to unusually high amounts of precipitation the area received over the winter. WYDOT geologists are continuing to measure and monitor the movement of the road. “It’s definitely moving, the guardrail is sinking too. We are watching very closely,” Daigle said. WYDOT is advising travelers to use caution in the area. They said the department would not hesitate to close the canyon road if conditions become unsafe. Crews are already mobilizing equipment and crews in anticipation of the failure and have already put together a plan for a temporary detour around the shoulder to maintain two-way traffic, if possible.