Wyoming
Wyoming lawmakers earmark $15 million for I-80 Green River Tunnel repairs – WyoFile
CHEYENNE–The Wyoming Legislature agreed to set aside $15 million to inspect and repair I-80 tunnels near Green River after a 26-vehicle crash earlier this month killed three people and left 18 others injured.
The Feb. 14 wreck also caused extensive damage to the westbound tunnel, including charred concrete lining and destroyed lighting and other equipment. Since then, the westbound tunnel has remained closed, forcing the eastbound tunnel to accommodate two-way traffic on part of Wyoming’s busiest interstate highway.
While the speed limit has been reduced to 35 miles per hour, Rock Springs Republican Sen. Stacy Jones said “it’s a bad situation.”
“It’s just a matter of time before we have another accident in there,” Jones said on the Senate floor as the body debated the appropriation.
“It’s created a bottleneck and we need to get this money to [Wyoming Department of Transportation,] so they can expedite the inspection and repairing of the other tunnel,” she said.
Jones alongside Sens. Ogden Driskill, R-Devils Tower, and Larry Hicks, R-Baggs, successfully brought the earmarking amendment Wednesday to
House Bill 33, “Vehicles sales and use tax distribution-highway fund.”
The $15 million is expected to be reverted to the state’s rainy day savings account, since the appropriations can only be spent if WYDOT is unable to access federal dollars. Appropriating state dollars was intended to speed up the repair and inspection process.
“So it’s really not an increase in expenditure or anything because we’re using the money that was already going to be moved over,” Rep. J.T. Larson, R-Rock Springs, said on the House floor. “It was a creative way to address the situation.”
Jones’ amendment also largely reverted the bill to its original version, which will divert a portion of vehicles sales and use taxes to the state’s highway fund on an annual basis. Those dollars are to be used for the operation, maintenance, construction and reconstruction of state highways.
For several years, lawmakers have struggled to work out a funding model for WYDOT, leaving the agency in “preservation mode” with a $400 million revenue shortfall.
While HB 33 will start to lessen the squeeze on the department, Senate Transportation, Highways and Military Affairs Committee Chairman Stephan Pappas, R-Cheyenne, said there’s still work to do.
“We will need to work out long-term funding,” Pappas said on the floor.
Driskill echoed him.
“We’re going to be coming back and looking at ways we can find a way to long-term fund our highways, but this is going to get us on the right track,” he said.
After voting for the amendment, but against the bill, Casper Republican Sen. Charles Scott said he supported the prompt funding for the tunnels but has larger concerns about diverting tax revenue that would otherwise go into the general fund to the highway fund.
More specifically, Scott said the Legislature has long resisted taxing “the operations,” such as semitrucks, “that are really tearing up the roads,” and that’s been a “mistake.”
“We need to get a more fair way of funding our highways and allocate the burden of supporting those highways a little more in accordance with groups that are benefiting from it, which I think are largely not even Wyoming citizens,” Scott said.
When the bill went back to the House for concurrence, the lower chamber voted 52-2 with three excused to send it to the governor’s desk.
The Joint Transportation Committee met Thursday to discuss potential topics for the interim, or the off-season months when lawmakers meet to craft committee bills. With the approval of the Legislature’s Management Council, highway funding will be a top priority for the committee.
In both chambers, “it was very clear that funding our roads and infrastructure was a very important topic,” WYDOT Director Darin Westby told the committee. “I’m not 100% sure the Senate was in alignment but felt that the need to keep it moving forward.”
As for the Green River tunnel inspection and repair, cleanup operations have not yet started. WYDOT previously told WyoFile a safety evaluation of the tunnel needed to be completed first.
WYOMING, Mich. — Starting May 1, the city of Wyoming is implementing odd-even outdoor water restrictions for homes and businesses to minimize the burden on its water treatment plant during upcoming water main construction.
The restrictions impacts the following neighborhoods:
- City of Wyoming
- Olive Township
- Blendon Township
- Holland Township
- Georgetown Township
- Jamestown Township
- Gaines Township
- Byron Township
- City of Hudsonville
- City of Grandville
- Western portion of the City of Kentwood
Under the upcoming restriction, residents and businesses with an odd-numbered address can water outdoors on odd days of the month. Those with an even-numbered address can water on even days.
The mandate limits activities like watering lawns, landscaping or filling pools. It does not impact water used for drinking or bathing.
“Municipal leaders ask for the community’s support of the outdoor water use restriction during construction which will increase capacity and reliability,” a statement from the city reads. “In this interim, compliance with the restriction will help avoid an outright ban for everyone on outdoor irrigation.”
The restrictions will remain in effect through June 15.
This story was reported on-air by a journalist and has been converted to this platform with the assistance of AI. Our editorial team verifies all reporting on all platforms for fairness and accuracy.
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Gov. Mark Gordon says that while there has been a lot of concern about data centers using water “and rightfully so,” southeast Wyoming data centers are making adjustments to address water consumption concerns.
The governor told Wake Up Wyoming host Glenn Woods on Wednesday that ”Related Digital, for example, their new data center, is only going to have six bathrooms of consumptive use.”
Related Digital, on a project website for the Cheyenne Facility, says “Our design uses high-efficiency air cooling technology instead of high-water-use evaporative cooling systems.”
The governor goes on to say that Microsoft ‘has just redesigned some of their work, they are going to yield up 566 million gallons of water from just better design, and not using water consumptively, air cooling. We’re up high so our cooling needs are less.”
Microsoft recently announced plans for a 3.200 acre expansion of it’s operations in Cheyenne. On the website for the Cheyenne expansion project, the company says “Microsoft will minimize its water use and replenish more water than what is used.” The article goes on to say it’s Wyoming operations use direct evaporative cooling, adding “This design uses water for cooling less than 10% of the year, with the latest datacenter designs going even further, in some cases eliminating the need for ongoing access to water for cooling after an initial fill.”
What About Electricity?
The governor says in regard to electricity, companies like Microsoft and Related Digital and others have entered into a Large Power Contract Service tariff agreement with Black Hills Energy ‘so they are paying for everything to do with the upgrades, the service and so on. The demand… isn’t going to change in terms of what it is going to do to price.”
Gordon says the state is working with Black Hills Energy “so that rate payers are not affected.”
Hear Glenn Woods’ Interview With Gov. Gordon here
2026 WHSAA Wyoming State Wrestling Championship
Gallery Credit: Kolby Fedore, TSM
Wyoming State Parks, Historic Sites, and Trails has officially released a Request for Proposal (RFP) for professional appraisal services to evaluate concession facilities at Hot Springs State Park in Thermopolis, Wyoming.
These appraisals are mandated by 2026 Senate Enrolled Act 27, Section 335, which requires appraisals of the “capital investment” and “ongoing concern” for the businesses known as the Star Plunge and the Hot Springs Hotel and Spa.
Qualified professional appraisers are encouraged to review the full requirements. Proposals must be submitted through the State’s Public Purchase online bidding system by 2:00 p.m., May 18, 2026. To view the full RFP (Number 0270-M), please visit https://www.publicpurchase.com/gems/wyominggsd,wy/buyer/public/home.
For additional information, contact Wyoming State Parks’ Visitor Services Manager Stephanie Dillmon at (307) 777-5734 or by email at Stephanie.Dillmon2@wyo.gov or learn more about Wyoming State Parks at wyoparks.wyo.gov.
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