GREEN RIVER — The rockslide that occurred just west of Green River Thursday morning happened in an area that has already been slated for investigation and evaluation by the Wyoming Department of Transportation (WYDOT).
WYDOT District 3 Public Relations Specialist Stephanie Harsha told SweetwaterNOW the incident happened a little after 11 a.m. in the area known as the Palisades.
Harsha said that before this rockslide, the Sweetwater County Sheriff’s Office recently contacted WYDOT with concerns about the Palisades area, as well as the rock formation on WYO 374, which is Jamestown Road. Engineers with WYDOT had already been scheduled to evaluate the Palisades.
“WYDOT engineers had already committed to bringing their geology team to investigate and evaluate the area. That was, and still is planned for next week,” Harsha said.
Harsha said WYDOT will continue to evaluate the area and the risks it poses to drivers, and will address issues necessary to protect those traveling on state highways. Fortunately, Thursday’s incident did not reach I-80.
“The impacts were minimal and a closure was not necessary,” Harsha said. “The debris that came off the Palisades formation fell outside the state’s highway right of way and there was no debris that reached the roadway, so no clean-up activities were warranted.”
However, she said that there was a brief plume of dust, and had there been extensive visibility issues, WYDOT would have issued an alert for drivers.
This is not the first time this area has experienced a rockslide, as an event occurred back in 2010.
“Our geology team, along with local engineers, immediately investigated the formation and assessed the threat of future rock fall. This area is lucky enough to have a wide ditch area between the highway and the formation, which ‘catches’ most of the debris that could potentially hinder vehicles. However, a major issue with the rockfalls in this area is the dust cloud that it creates, causing visibility issues for passing motorists,” Harsha said.
She said that WYDOT does monitor rock formations and slide areas across the state for potential risk and safety issues to Wyoming highways. There are geologists on staff at WYDOT who investigate, evaluate and recommend treatments when needed.
“A good example of that is when WYDOT did some rock scaling work near Point of Rocks on Interstate 80 in 2019. Rock slides are difficult to predict and mitigate,” Harsha said. “Our local engineers consult with our geologists when an area has been identified and they evaluate several things. One, is this a risk to the traveling public? And two, can it be mitigated?”
