Kemmerer residents packed the Best Western conference room on Thursday, Oct. 12, for a public meeting hosted by the Wyoming Department of Transportation.

The meeting’s purpose was to address the recent reconstruction of Wyoming Highway 233, also known as Hams Fork Road. The construction has left several residents angry because of the poor quality and potential danger of the new road.

According to WYDOT District Engineer Keith Compton and Kemmerer resident engineer Jennifer Hoffman, the road in its current state has not been accepted by WYDOT.

“There will be a pavement overlay in the spring — that’s not a probably,” Hoffman told the Gazette. “But we’re doing tests and getting numbers from the contractor.”

The audience listened to a presentation by Hoffman, who lives in Randolph, Utah.

Hoffman didn’t deny the road is bad. She affirmed the road's rough condition several times by recalling her own experiences driving on it.

“My personal philosophy is that we try to anticipate problems, but it doesn’t always go your way,” Hoffman said. “In this case, we didn’t get what we wanted. We will use this to make sure that all of our processes are better next time.”

Hoffman said reconstruction of Hams Fork Road has been on WYDOT’s radar for several years.

Hoffman explained the difference between traditional and non-traditional approaches to reconstructing the road, which had varying costs of $250,000 to $6,000,000.

According to Hoffman, the final decision about construction for Hams Fork Road was to do a full depth reclamation and double chip seal, which is a non-traditional approach.

WYDOT engineer Jennifer Hoffman gave the primary presentation at the WYDOT public meeting on Thursday, Oct. 12. Hoffman also answered questions after her presentation. (GAZETTE PHOTO / Theresa Davis)

WYDOT defines full depth reclamation as a “process that grinds up or reclaims all of the existing asphalt and some portion of the gravel underneath the pavement. After being reclaimed it is regraded vertically and horizontally and compacted. The result is a gravel-like layer that is stronger than new gravel would be, due to the pavement that was mixed in, but less durable and more permeable than a plant mix or concrete layer.”

WYDOT budgeted the Hams Fork Road project at $3.1 million, which is about $200,000 for every mile of the road.

WYDOT awarded the contract for the project to Knife River Corporation Northwest on August 18, 2016.

Knife River finished construction August 4 of this year, and the contractor has been working on cleanup ever since. The contract completion date is October 31, 2017.

Hoffman said doing a pavement overlay on the road originally “would have looked good, but it wouldn’t have lasted long, and would’ve cost $1.2 million.”

Hoffman outlined potential contributing factors to “why the road is so rough:”

• Sub-grade – existing dirt under the road surface

• Insufficient compaction during construction

• Traffic before chip seal was put down

• Impact from construction equipment

• Variability of materials on different stretches of road

“We’re working on finding the source of the issue by testing the road and working with the contractor,” Hoffman said.

WYDOT's tests have shown that many sections of the new road don’t meet the proper ride specifications.

In addition to addressing what may have caused the post-construction mess, Hoffman attempted to address questions that residents have posed since construction “finished.”

“I don’t want people to think that I think their concerns aren’t valid,” Hoffman said. “Part of our job is that, unfortunately, we can’t address everybody’s concerns the way each person thinks it should be handled.”

Hoffman disputed claims that the road is getting worse day by day. She cited WYDOT’s tests from Sept. 4 to Sept. 26 that showed less than one percent of a change in road condition.

Hoffman also assured the audience that WYDOT representatives were on-site every day during construction.

“WYDOT had one to five people there every day, and an inspector was present every day,” Hoffman said.

Hoffman said WYDOT has heard several concerns about water pooling on the uneven road, which will be hazardous in the winter and spring.

“WYDOT will monitor those areas throughout the winter,” Hoffman said. “We might look at small patches, because we pretty much know the areas that may give us trouble.”

One of the most outraged comments at the meeting came from Cindi Skillin, a school bus driver for Lincoln County School District #1. Skillin’s route takes her up Hams Fork Road each day. 

“I’m not speaking on behalf of the LCSD#1 transportation department, but just from what I’ve seen driving my school bus up that road,” Skillin said. “I’m concerned about our students making it to school and back during the winter.”

Skillin said she meets semi-trucks and trailers nearly every day on her route, and the rough road conditions and guardrails that narrowed the road have made those encounters dangerous.

“I’ve been doing this for 15 years and never had that problem,” Skillin said. “It scares me. Tell the families of my kids that that road is safe to travel.”

Skillin’s comments were met with applause.

Hoffman and the other WYDOT representatives defended the choice to install guardrails on the road.

"It’s my job to provide a safe road,” Hoffman said. “My job is to be proactive and not reactive. We can’t wait until someone dies. Is it the perfect solution? No.”

Hoffman told the Gazette more about the decision to install guardrails.

“The guardrails didn’t actually narrow the road,” Hoffman said. “The guardrail is off the pavement, and the road is actually wider than it was before. It may feel narrower, but that’s not the case.”

At the meeting, Hoffman also explained the need for continuing tests before any further construction is approached.

“We need to make sure we’re not making assumptions,” Hoffman said. “We need to collect all the data to really determine what happened.”

Hoffman explained  WYDOT's process for when a project doesn't meet contract expectations.

She said WYDOT aims to keep the resolution dispute and claims process with the contractor at the lowest level possible.

“Right now we’re still at the District Engineer level,” Hoffman said, “and Keith (Compton) is heavily involved with that process.”

“There are good chunks of the road,” Hoffman told the Gazette. “We might have been able to do something this fall if we had just addressed the worst parts of the road, but that felt like it wouldn’t be doing a complete job.”

Hoffman said she did want to stress that the road will be fixed in the spring with a pavement overlay, although WYDOT is still working with the contractor on the details of that fix.

After Hoffman’s presentation and a short Q&A session, WYDOT officials allowed meeting attendees to talk to the representatives individually.

Also available for residents to voice their concerns were WYDOT employees Ted Wells, District Construction Engineer; Tory Thomas, District Maintenance Engineer; and Darin Kaufman, District Traffic Engineer.

Stephanie Harsha, WYDOT District Public Involvement Specialist, discussed why she thinks this meeting was successful.

“The people overseeing this really care about the job and about the people that live on that road,” Harsha said.

Hoffman said she felt good about the meeting, although residents had mixed reactions about whether or not their concerns were heard.

“I think at the meeting that we gave people a little insight into the work we do at WYDOT, not just on Hams Fork Road,” Hoffman said. “I’m hoping that because of the meeting, people will feel more comfortable reaching out to me when they encounter issues.”