SWEETWATER COUNTY — The Sweetwater County commissioners unanimously approved a funding agreement between the county and the Wyoming Energy Authority for the reconstruction of a portion of County Road 15, Nine Mile Road.
The agreement is for the Wyoming Energy Authority to pay a one-to-one match in the amount of $1,533,919, which will go toward completely reconstructing the first 1.43 miles of CR 15. Nine Mile Road is the roadway that leads out to the Jim Bridger Power Plant, and services roughly 1,300 vehicles a day, according to county commissioner meeting documents.
“The first mile and a half is falling apart and we need to completely reconstruct that,” Sweetwater County Public Works Director Gene Legerski said Tuesday.
In 2022, the Wyoming Legislature appropriated $10 million to the Governor’s Office for the public infrastructure for commercial energy, and Sweetwater County was seeking to utilize a portion of these funds for work needed on CR 15 and CR 23-North (Wamsutter Crooks Gap Road), which are both county roads that are heavily utilized by the oil and gas industry. Legerski said he first sent an email to the Wyoming Energy Authority to receive funding in February 2023. To work on both roads would have costed around $6.4 million.
“However, because of funding constraints and timing and other money going else where, this was reduced. But we’re thankful for the one-to-one match, it’ll actually make this project possible,” Legerski said.
Legerski said the county’s portion of the one-to-one match will come out of the county’s fuel tax.
