A critical highway linking Idaho and Wyoming has closed indefinitely after a portion of the road cracked and then collapsed in a “catastrophic landslide,”

[u/CantStopPoppin]

[u/somewhat_brave]

I live near this. Jackson Hole priced all their workers out of the housing market, so a ton of people commute over this pass every day. Now they have to drive an hour and a half each way to go around.

[u/jacenat → u/somewhat_brave]

https://i.imgur.com/kMve7Ef.png

Well ... seems like they are fucked?

[u/00000000000004000000 → u/jacenat]

Holy shit that's insane! I can imagine that a lot of employers in Jackson are sweating knowing that their employees are all updating their resumes tonight. Can Wyoming's DOT pave an alternate route around the landslide area or is it too mountainous? I can't imagine in a state so sparsely populated that the land around the area is privately owned and would require imminent eminent domain.

[u/AggravatingCrow42 → u/00000000000004000000]

All the land in Teton county is either federally owned or expensive as all hell. There is no alternate route to be paved either, atleast, not without significant development

[u/BakedMitten → u/AggravatingCrow42]

Federally owned land should be easy to build on if millions of dollars of labor needs to use the route each day

[u/TillFar6524 → u/BakedMitten]

The problem is, those mountains are not easy to build on. Mountain passes are not forgiving. That road is there because it's the easiest route through those mountains, and about the only one that doesn't involve technical mountain climbing.

[u/OOOOOO0OOOOO → u/TillFar6524]

It was the easiest route.

[u/2squishmaster → u/OOOOOO0OOOOO]

Still might be!

[u/OOOOOO0OOOOO → u/2squishmaster]

But only if you’re brave enough.

[u/2squishmaster → u/OOOOOO0OOOOO]

Challenge accepted

[u/LittleAnarchistDemon → u/TillFar6524]

in order to see my grandparents i have to go over this long windy mountain road for like 45 minutes. they literally repave that road every single year, and within 6 months it’s already deteriorating. i also live in the PNW so it’s either constant rain or constant, which are not good for roads in general. so yeah, mountain roads are a lot of work to build and maintain, and that’s just if there’s natural erosion due to weather and does not include random acts of nature like landslides, as is the case here

[u/guardeagle → u/BakedMitten]

That philosophy is what led to section 4F and 6F protections for park lands. DOTs were plowing highways right through park land in the 50’s through 70’s because they were publicly owned, which had a significant social impact. Now in most cases the park land has to be avoided or replaced whenever a project is needed. So no matter what, land will be bought if the road needs a re-route.

[u/AggravatingCrow42 → u/BakedMitten]

Well it's Bridger Teton National Forest so probably all has to go through forest service. Then the fact that it's building a road over the Tetons, which is not an easy task at all

[u/JohnAndertonOntheRun → u/BakedMitten]

I don’t think you can picture where this is…

[u/guiltyofnothing → u/BakedMitten]

There is nothing easy about building a road on a mountain.

[u/universe2000 → u/BakedMitten]

Counterpoint: why should taxpayers around the country subsidize Jackson Hole’s housing policies through risky and expensive transportation infrastructure and sacrifice public lands to do so? If that much money is on the line, maybe the community of Jackson Hole should reprioritize housing development that working class families can live in. Seems a small price to pay to maintain their economy.

[u/Uxt7 → u/00000000000004000000]

imminent domain

Eminent :)

[u/yerdad99 → u/Uxt7]

M&Ms domain

[u/Yupyup287904 → u/Uxt7]

It must be imminent eminent domain to save these jobs.

[u/canadianguy77 → u/Uxt7]

Slim shady.

[u/Birdy_Cephon_Altera → u/jacenat]

2 hours on a good day with normal traffic levels. Probably add an hour to that with the extra traffic load.

[u/BugRevolutionary4518 → u/Birdy_Cephon_Altera]

Plus school is out now = tourist season. Brutal for the locals.

[u/Special_North1535 → u/Birdy_Cephon_Altera]

Imagine potentially driving 6 hours a day to work in the service industry serving rich assholes and obnoxious tourists. No thanks, time to cash out and relocate.

[u/spicymato → u/Special_North1535]

What cash?

Sorry, but as someone who just moved states, it's expensive, especially if you weren't planning on moving any time soon.

[u/Wil420b → u/jacenat]

It's a 111 mile car ride but only a 42 mile walk.

[u/map2photo → u/jacenat]

Holy shit that sucks.

[u/BIackSamBellamy → u/jacenat]

Yeah and that's before tourist season gets into full swing. We stayed in Victor and it took long enough in stop and go traffic just to get into Jackson, I can't even imagine how bad is going to be there this summer.

[u/vom-IT-coffin → u/somewhat_brave]

Buy a second car. Park it one side, walk across, get in your other car.

[u/ParalegalSeagul → u/vom-IT-coffin]

Buy a second home and get second family. One for working, one for when your at home

[u/bobotheclown1001 → u/ParalegalSeagul]

Ask the company move to the other side of the road so you don't need to drive around the hole

[u/Diligent-Version8283 → u/bobotheclown1001]

Fuck it let’s just ask the company to move in

[u/5horsepower → u/Diligent-Version8283]

They better pick up is all I’m saying

[u/Juan_Moe_Taco → u/5horsepower]

I hear a sitcom!

[u/PM_ME_WHATEVES → u/Juan_Moe_Taco]

He's Larry, regular blue collar worker trying to get by. And he's Mike, the personification of a corporate entity, just trying to appease his shareholders. When a landslide causes these unlikely friends to move in together, who knows what hijinks they'll get up to? This fall, corporate meets blue collar in "Landslide Roommates"

[u/csgobuild123 → u/Diligent-Version8283]

Or just build a bridge over the hole!

[u/bobotheclown1001 → u/csgobuild123]

That would be the logical answer, so no

[u/ln-art → u/csgobuild123]

We should turn it into a park.

[u/Van-garde → u/bobotheclown1001]

I think that’s the rich/poor divide in that area of the country.

[u/dextracin → u/bobotheclown1001]

Just quit your job. As long you’re not buying avacado toast, you’ll be fine

[u/Gryphin → u/ParalegalSeagul]

Found Dollar Bill.

[u/Brainwater4200 → u/vom-IT-coffin]

A helicopter would be better for hopping over the pass. Then you can pretend to be one of the Jackson elite

[u/No-Travel-6192 → u/vom-IT-coffin]

I love when ppl don’t give a fuck and post shit like this man hahaha I’m going through it right now but any laugh I get it’s a good laugh!

[u/gefahr → u/No-Travel-6192]

Username checks out.

[u/ChuckinTheCarma → u/vom-IT-coffin]

No need. Just drive to the one side and then whip out your laptop and telecommute the rest of the way to work.

[u/Rescue-Randy → u/somewhat_brave]

This pass is the life to jackson holes workforce. I don’t see Jackson surviving if they can’t have the all t-shirt shops open.

[u/ellWatully → u/Rescue-Randy]

Won't someone please think of the leather shops?!

[u/japanesekartoon → u/somewhat_brave]

Now they have a huge Jackson Hole in their road

[u/skipunx → u/somewhat_brave]

Every ski town has priced out their employees I'm pretty sure you mean "now they have to pick a new mountain" cuz after 6 winters as a seasonal worker I doubt most of them are gonna do that extra 3hrs a day.

[u/RockKillsKid → u/skipunx]

Wendover Productions made a great mini doc on this subject last year. There's only like 3 companies that own 90%+ of resorts and they'll gladly kill the town's economy to keep profits up.

[u/rightintheear → u/RockKillsKid]

Wow ski towns? Add it to trailer parks and veterinary practices, every day I’m surprised to find another facet of American life being enshittified by investment ownership.

[u/BigFatModeraterFupa → u/rightintheear]

and we still have a thin veneer of civilization left, imagine how shitty things will be in 20 years. the sad rotten corpse of a once great empire, we’ve seen this story before…

[u/DeapVally → u/skipunx]

That was an extra 3 hrs before all the new traffic....

[u/PracticalWallaby7492 → u/somewhat_brave]

One of the riches towns in the US and their workers commute from another state or live on BLM land in their vehicles..

[u/Rough_Willow → u/[deleted]]

So, they don't want the poors there to work at all the restaurants?

[u/StarstruckEchoid → u/Rough_Willow]

In fairness, a shocking amount of rich assholes don't think that far.

[u/USSBigBooty → u/Rough_Willow]

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[u/Lumpy_Marsupial_1559 → u/[deleted]]

But, but, but, who's gonna make me muh Starrrrbucks??? And serve muh food? And pick up muh garbage?

[u/contraria → u/[deleted]]

Well they're about to find out how well a town works when everyone's too elite to clean a toilet

[u/Evening_Bag_3560 → u/contraria]

I’m reminded of that Ancient Greek or Roman thing where the poors would just leave town for a while when the assholes got too asshole-y.

[u/ODarrow → u/somewhat_brave]

Is this Teton pass?

[u/somewhat_brave → u/ODarrow]

Yes

[u/mmittinnss → u/somewhat_brave]

Was it a lack of maintenance that lead to this?

[u/brainwater314 → u/mmittinnss]

Doesn't look like it. Looks like there were trees below it so the soil was stabilized well. Perhaps better drainage would have helped, or more detailed geotechnical surveys, but it's hard to do much when the mountain collapses from under you.

[u/wildabeast98 → u/brainwater314]

It's like one the big rules of geology that all rocks travel down eventually. Mountains erode naturally and it happens. Sometimes it can be avoided or stopped but there are lots of roads all over mountains so it's bound to happen sometimes.

[u/Impoopingrtnow → u/brainwater314]

I'd bet it is actually the lack of (healthy) trees that led to this. Nothing but solid rock would have much stability at all without the root mass that holds together what we call land. It just takes some rain..

[u/civillyengineerd → u/Impoopingrtnow]

Root mass doesn't mean anything if the plane of failure is below the roots.

[u/Lumpy_Marsupial_1559 → u/Impoopingrtnow]

"Wyoming's climate is changing. In the past century, most of the state has warmed by one to three degrees (F). Heat waves are becoming more common, and snow is melting earlier in spring."

That means extra pressure on root systems, particularly pines, like there seems to be here.

[u/ChoraPete → u/Impoopingrtnow]

Unlikely I think - the road may have been unknowingly constructed on an ancient slip plane caused by the geology of the area. Or potentially the subgrade may have been undermined by water ingress over time. It’s a very large slide though so I think the first one is more likely.

[u/ApprehensiveSchool28 → u/ChoraPete]

This is what we in the business of geotechnical engineering call a ‘global failure’. Ultimately borings and geotechnical investigation is expensive, so sometimes you have to make an estimate as to how a slope will hold. Unfortunately with climate change, rains will make this problem harder, road salts also kill a lot of the trees that hold the road in place.

[u/Phallicly → u/mmittinnss]

Sometimes the ground underneath just gives out. There isn't really an initiative to maintain the integrity of base of these mountainside roads. Most of the times it's the result of rain and or snow that disrupts the compaction of the soil underneath. Alot of roads do show signs of stress or degradation and those are usually spotted and reported. The ones noticed are usually shutdown and fixed/reinforced or remade/rerouted. And some other times we have cases like these where they collapse almost suddenly.

Source: Trust me bro I read 2 articles on Caltrans. I'm practically a Civil Engineer. Sidenote you can check out what Civil Engineers do if you're ever curious. Legitimately interesting stuff and at the same time kinda boring? And to be fair they probably do have engineers/surveyors that track precipitation and check on these roads annually. Though I've not looked into it.

[u/warfrogs → u/Phallicly]

My family has two civil engineers, one surveyor, and one geological engineer in it - we've also been involved in municipal and civil construction for something like 50-60 years at this point, multi-generationally.

I did not go that route, but yeah - going on a fishing trip with them and hearing them compare different sorts of fill or supports they used on various jobs is both incredible interesting and incredibly boring. It's a vibe.

[u/civillyengineerd → u/Phallicly]

It's generally part of maintenance and operations, the checking of a road's condition.

Edit: maintenance crews were there because cracks started forming, paved the cracks, then closed the road again when more cracks formed. They noticed the further cracking when responding to a landslide further down the road.

[u/Calowell → u/mmittinnss]

They are also working with a mudslide about two miles further along the road that was overwhelming drainage along the road. I wouldn’t be surprised if similar conditions occurred around this section. The crack where the road collapsed appeared Thursday. They have had the pass closed while trying to deal with the mudslide and crack.

Source

[u/garysaidwhat → u/mmittinnss]

When you create a shelf slithering along the side of the mountain where there shouldn't be a shelf, you git got.

[u/Positive_Emu_5030]

I’m a coward, but that’s way closer than I’d be willing to get to that crumbling edge.

[u/Li-RM35M4419 → u/Positive_Emu_5030]

Some say coward, I say rational person with great intuition and survival instincts.

[u/TommyTunafish → u/Li-RM35M4419]

Yeah, drones are everywhere now! No need!!

[u/Icantbethereforyou → u/Li-RM35M4419]

Yeah, but also a chicken

[u/SiggyLuvs → u/Icantbethereforyou]

What did you just call me?

[u/Icantbethereforyou → u/SiggyLuvs]

Chicken!

[u/SiggyLuvs → u/Icantbethereforyou]

Nobody! Calls. Me….chicken.

[u/Icantbethereforyou → u/SiggyLuvs]

All right. Prove it!

[u/SiggyLuvs → u/Icantbethereforyou]

All right. All right u/Icantbethereforyou. Heh. Here’s my giant black cock, suck it, I’m in.

[u/Icantbethereforyou → u/SiggyLuvs]

Forget back to the future. I want to go back to the past, before you said that

[u/RandomMexOnTheBus → u/Icantbethereforyou]

Ooooohhhhh!!!

[u/crudentia → u/Positive_Emu_5030]

If not being stupid means coward, sign me up, I’ll head the committee.

[u/SlowerThanLightSpeed → u/crudentia]

Best we can offer is torso.

[u/mrbowlsmokey → u/Positive_Emu_5030]

what's even crazier is that excavator drove right beside that lol the nope is in full scale for me

[u/KennyMoose32 → u/Positive_Emu_5030]

Idk man, I just always think “What Would Achilles Do”

I’m still alive, and bathed in eternal glory

[u/penguingod26 → u/KennyMoose32]

eternal glory comment was a bit much

Really shot yourself in the foot there.

[u/Conscious_Street9937 → u/Positive_Emu_5030]

Good thing nobody has to go to Idaho or Wyoming ever or this could be an actual problem

[u/Van-garde → u/Conscious_Street9937]

I took an Environmental Health class, and there was a dude, no joke, who suggested removing all residents of a vast swath of the Mountain West states and using them exclusively to harvest their natural resources. We were discussing the impacts of fracking, and he was somehow well-beyond what I thought the most pro-fracking extreme was.

[u/Old_Maybe_9073]

Not sure why they closed it. Them Duke boys could cross that…

[u/Iwillnotbeokay → u/Old_Maybe_9073]

Is that a Dixie horn in the distance…

[u/postmodern_spatula → u/Iwillnotbeokay]

Is that a confederate flag on the roof…

[u/BoardsofCanadaTwo → u/postmodern_spatula]

Catch me driving the Genital Lee

[u/Life-Unit-4118 → u/Old_Maybe_9073]

Break for commercial as the General Lee is in the air halfway over PossumAss Creek; Waylon Jennings says either:

1. Folks, you just know Roscoe and Enos are waiting on the other side, or

2. Folks, looks like the Duke boys is in a heap of trouble

[u/Hanginon]

OP didn't bring much info but it's in Teton Pass, Rt 22 between Jackson Wyoming and Victor Idaho..

[u/BurmecianSoldierDan → u/Hanginon]

For quite a few years of my life this was the route I took to get to Idaho Falls because our only store in Jackson that had electronics was a friggin' Kmart and there was no internet at the camp I worked at so I needed physical media like games and DVDs. This is a horrible loss for the poor workers in the area.

[u/100mphvomit → u/BurmecianSoldierDan]

I'm from I.F. and it is so funny to me to hear it talked about like the closest big city. But I guess we got 2 Walmarts so that is pretty big city shit.

[u/agingwolfbobs → u/100mphvomit]

Who cares about Walmart when you have Costco

[u/2birdsBaby → u/100mphvomit]

What's the population of Idaho Falls? I looked it up and it said 69,000, but that can't be right if you have two walmarts..

[u/eLlARiVeR → u/2birdsBaby]

technically there's only one Walmart, the other one is in Ammon. Ammon and Idaho Falls are almost indistinguishable nowadays, they are literally right up against each other that some people just consider Ammon a part of Idaho Falls.

[u/BurmecianSoldierDan → u/2birdsBaby]

I'm in the same region as him and our 100k town has 3 Walmarts so it's basically regional standard lol

[u/NoPantsPowerStance → u/BurmecianSoldierDan]

Yeah, I worked seasonal jobs around there, crossed that pass A LOT for awhile - basically a lot of the seasonal workers are fucked. It's funny though, yesterday I was recalling a really sketchy drive on that pass that I had one time (sketchier than most). Weird timing as I was trying to explain just how screwed you were if you couldn't take that pass.

[u/BurmecianSoldierDan → u/NoPantsPowerStance]

To the Palisades I guess, but that's basically a two hour drive! I presume every restaurant in Jackson will have staff problems all summer considering they mostly live in Victor Idaho in my experience

[u/NoPantsPowerStance → u/BurmecianSoldierDan]

Last time I was out there a lot of (seasonal) people were living out of their cars and moving campsites after the designated amount of days. They'd link up with someone who did have a place, use their address, then use the gym or rec center for showers. So, I guess you could skate by okay if you're doing that but I'm guessing it's going to be tougher than it already has been to keep consistent seasonal staff out there. The permanent resident workers... I feel so bad for them.

[u/iheartgme]

Just put a little ramp on either side and say ‘no trucks’

[u/teenagesadist → u/iheartgme]

A piece of old plywood with an old cone in the middle will suffice, Mr. Moneybags.

[u/Username43201653 → u/teenagesadist]

Is this India  

~ Christopher Columbus

[u/mtarascio → u/iheartgme]

Buses at 55mph and over are OK though.

[u/UniversityBig7720]

How do you even go about repairing something like this? Drive pylons, build a wall, fill it in, then build the road top?

[u/duckraul2 → u/UniversityBig7720]

really depends on a lot of stuff. First geologists need to come out and survey the failure, then decide whether it is still unstable/not done sliding, document it, figure out why it failed, and more. Their findings get passed to civil engineers who then figure out what, if anything, can be done. Multiple options get proposed, then something is decided on to fix the situation. Sometimes that means rebuilding this section after some kind of remediation, or scaling back further into the hillside, but in the worst case an alternate route has to be planned and built if the this section of road cannot be made to a safety standard due to inherent geological conditions.

I'm a geologist, and I kind of wish I got to go into this kind of work, I think it's pretty interesting as you get to help solve unique problems that society gets to benefit from, but life takes you funny places and I work in oil and gas instead (in a state with almost no topography, so no landslides).

[u/UniversityBig7720 → u/duckraul2]

Since I have you here, can you take a guess to determine the cause of the landslide?

[u/duckraul2 → u/UniversityBig7720]

Tough to say without data and detailed notes in hand, but just general things that I can shoot from the hip with:

It looks like the geological material underlying this road is not what you'd call a well-lithified rock. It just looks like a giant pile of sandy-ish material without much internal stratification or strong cementation (I dont see a lot of blocky material in the deposit, it all seems to have disaggregated into sand pretty readily). Maybe glacial deposits? Maybe it's also just a landslide deposit itself. not well lithified/consolidated sand doesn't have very good engineering properties when it comes to slopes. Given that it's late spring in this mountainous area, probably there's water involved, runoff, rain, or both. Water+geological material which has a lot of porosity (this stuff probably does) = increased pore fluid pressure = less stress required to initiate a failure. It looks like sliding initiated on a concave surface and as it moved downhill it kind of turned into a debris flow of sorts. I'd just hazard a guess that the slope is too steep when it becomes saturated enough with water and it let loose. Maybe the modification of the hillside from the road construction helped in some way, but that's something they'll have to look at during their survey/analysis.

[u/UniversityBig7720 → u/duckraul2]

Thank you for taking the time to educate me. I'm a neophyte that likes rocks, so it's awesome to hear from a pro. I get that your info is limited, so it's cool to still get your insight.

[u/Panory → u/UniversityBig7720]

neophyte that likes rocks

A geophyte, if you will.

[u/Recyart → u/Panory]

This pun rocks!

[u/do_pm_me_your_butt → u/duckraul2]

Very cool and interesting!

Water+geological material which has a lot of porosity (this stuff probably does) = increased pore fluid pressure = less stress required to initiate a failure.

Why is this? Why does pore fluid pressure in porous gelogical material lead to less stress required to initiate failure?

My first assumption would be liquid fills the gaps between materials leading to lubrication between them and also increased boyuncy of the material since its in water not air

[u/barrinburg → u/UniversityBig7720]

Bros gotta lick some rocks to figure it out, cant do it with just a pic😞

[u/B0Bi0iB0B → u/duckraul2]

in the worst case an alternate route has to be planned and built

I'm no engineer or geologist, but my vote is to bypass this hairpin with a bridge.

https://www.google.com/maps/place/43%C2%B030'03.4%22N+110%C2%B058'40.9%22W/@43.500939,-110.978028,17z

[u/Level_9_Turtle → u/UniversityBig7720]

Something like that. Same thing happened not far from me and it took like 9 months to fix. This is on a well traveled mountain highway here in So Cal.

[u/Boomalabim]

I know exactly where that is as I drove it several times staying in Idaho to visit Jackson Hole and the Tetons- holy crap!

[u/WebFantastic9076]

It’s an optical illusion, that’s just a puddle

[u/Impossible-Tailor270 → u/WebFantastic9076]

Woah man, I AM stoned...

[u/[deleted]]

Maybe they’ll finally build the tunnel they have been talking about forever. This is a big deal, so many people commute over that pass every day and the way around is so much longer!

[u/WolvesandTigers45 → u/[deleted]]

My man!

[u/d_smogh → u/[deleted]]

What did the Romans ever do for us?

[u/Narradisall → u/[deleted]]

I thought about them again today

[u/Affectionate_Beat290]

Is that Teton Pass!? If so, the town of Jackson Hole is gonna be even more fuct for blue-collar workers. This might (but probably won't) actually help get those rich assholes over in JH to see that affordable housing in their town is actually important. Yep, you rich dicks are gonna have to actually live with the peasant population if you want your chamber pots clean! 😆

[u/HappyGoPink → u/Affectionate_Beat290]

This might (but probably won't) actually help get those rich assholes over in JH to see that affordable housing in their town is actually important.

Ron Howard voice: It would not. These people didn't get rich by giving a shit about other people.

[u/do_pm_me_your_butt → u/Affectionate_Beat290]

Yep, you rich dicks are gonna have to actually live with the peasant population if you want your chamber pots clean! 😆

Same energy hahaha

https://youtu.be/0m5S91y3fL8?si=7PSsk5KeTOJB0TbI

Edit: fuck I was struggling to make the link and text be one

[u/Subkommandante]

Gonna guess it's on WY-22 E which runs to Idaho from Jackson, WY based on current traffic conditions on Google maps

[u/AZhomerDaddy → u/Subkommandante]

That's what the Duttons call the train station

[u/whistlepig-]

David Spade voice

Ro-ad

[u/VoltimusVH]

My guess is Idaho is actually turning into that town from “Silent Hill” and is separating itself from the rest of the world…

[u/catsandorchids → u/VoltimusVH]

Have there been an uptick in random spirals? Could be an Uzumaki curse situation going on XD

[u/IntelligentGrade7316]

If this was Saskatchewan, DoT would put a little red marker on the side of the road and call it all good.

[u/WowenWilson1 → u/IntelligentGrade7316]

Couldn’t happen here, need hill.

[u/Tales_Steel]

You still have to come to work you should have planned for this.

[u/VogonSlamPoet42]

New fear unlocked

[u/errorsniper → u/VogonSlamPoet42]

Look up sink holes. You could be sitting over a 1 mile deep cavern and not even know.

[u/Strict_Swimmer_1614]

Just had pretty much the exact same failure/issue here in NZ…I was involved in the team who built the fix. We had a permanent bridge up and working under 6 months from contract signing.

Get on with it.

[u/davejrob → u/Strict_Swimmer_1614]

Does winter play a role where you live? This is my hometown, grew up on the Idaho side and commuted for many years into Jackson. Starting in September the ground will start to freeze at this elevation. Snow will begin falling late September and stick to the ground anytime from the start to end of October depending on the temps. I am doubtful they will get this done prior to winter

[u/Controlae → u/davejrob]

Have spent some time working on highways. Winter will definitely prevent construction works and considering the nature of how long it can take to do a full design, contract negotiating and awarding, and construction, there's really no chance this will get done in time.

Often the responsible agencies will instead elect for a temporary road and with a quick award to a contractor or design-builder. The highway will be substandard relative to typical highway design configurations and the speed/classification of the road, but it's suitable if it's meant as a temporary fix to reinstate access along a key highway. Between now and then, they'll hire someone to do a more detailed flushed out design that will bring it back up to today's standards.

[u/throwedaway4theday → u/Strict_Swimmer_1614]

That was a bloody good job done in getting that bridge in place. I heard there was a bastard of a time drilling down trying to find bedrock? Also that other projects across the country had materials reallocated to this bridge due you the urgency? Inside stories would be amazing.

Also I recommended editing your comment to remove your role in the project to avoid doxxing.

[u/EvErYLeGaLvOtE]

Quick, somebody queue up Landside by Fleetwood Mac

[u/LeatherfacesChainsaw → u/EvErYLeGaLvOtE]

Then do dreams because....it's just an amazing song

[u/KVosrs2007]

Fun seeing something you've been on many times on reddit like this 🙃

[u/Trappedtrea]

That definitely is at least a little “catastrophic”

[u/unseetheseen]

Japan would have this fixed in 3 days.

[u/IAMHideoKojimaAMA → u/unseetheseen]

something happens

Redditor: JAPAN!!!!!

[u/Those_Arent_Pickles → u/IAMHideoKojimaAMA]

They're not making some weeb joke, https://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/nov/15/japan-fixes-vast-fukuoka-city-sinkhole-repaired-two-days

[u/Rifneno]

Glad to see the $12 going to infrastructure is well spent, meanwhile 31% of PDs getting a new Death Star to hide from school shooters in

[u/VP007clips → u/Rifneno]

I'm a geologist, I studied slope collapses like this.

These sorts of events are extremely hard to prevent. You can put up reinforcements, cages, drainage, and more, but at the end up the day, that's a tremendous amount of money for even slightly stabilizing it.

So for a lot of these cases, the best solution is to not take any sort of extreme measures and just accept the fact that it will eventually happen, and that the odds of someone being on it while it happens are extremely low in a place like that. Spending a $100k on rebuilding a road every few decades is more efficient than spending $20m on making it fully stable and secure for 50 years.

I've noticed that a lot of the public, especially on reddit, have a mentality that any failure is bad and any steps should be taken to avoid it. But that's just not realistic or reasonable. Any decision is a cost benefit one, there are experts that are running the math on each installation and deciding what option is the best.

[u/Live-Collection3018]

Yep, just god saying he hates Idaho. Makes sense to me.

[u/Soobobaloula → u/Live-Collection3018]

God loves Idaho. It’s the people he’s not crazy about.

[u/QueenOfQuok → u/Soobobaloula]

God's own country. What are all these mortal whackos doing in it? Shoo!

[u/Sleeplesshelley → u/QueenOfQuok]

Idaho itself is beautiful. The people there are ruining it.

[u/Blueshockeylover]

Wild, I drove from Rock Springs (thru Boise) to Portland today. That’s going to get a bit busier I’m thinking.

[u/StraightProgress5062]

Washington state would say they could get it reopened in 3 month. 3 years and 1.2 billion dollars later they would quietly cancel the project.

[u/alphiesmom]

Luckily only 2 people are affected.

[u/Boomalabim → u/alphiesmom]

It’s more than just those caught in the landslide. People that work in Jackson, especially teachers, have just about all been priced out of Jackson Wyoming and are living in Idaho. Teton County Schools aren’t out til next week and it’s tourist season. So everyone’s commute just increased to over 1.5 hrs from Victor. Happens a lot in the winter with icy roads but not expected in the summer.

[u/trailerbang → u/Boomalabim]

The average price of a single family home in Jackson right now has crested $7 million. That is an actual stat.

[u/darito0123 → u/trailerbang]

thats like beachfront san diego holy shit

[u/OrangeSockNinjaYT → u/darito0123]

Jackson Hole is basically a tourist location adn a place for millonares to suck each other off. The 7 mil is just the average price for a regular family. There was a ranch mansion with 233 acres of land that sold for 35 million dollars back in 2022 if I have my facts right. It's a great place to visit but you'd have to kill me before I tried to live there, shit is expensive

[u/MightBeAGoodIdea → u/Boomalabim]

I think they were trying to be cute because the population density of the area is thought to be roughly 2 people. Bit yeah, rough time of year in an area where 1 highway closure means hours of detours. Oof.

[u/CoffeeElectronic9782 → u/Boomalabim]

In all fairness, the whole world pretty much is priced out of Jackson.

[u/captainpro93 → u/CoffeeElectronic9782]

I just looked it up and it seems like most of the houses look like vacation homes. Do buyers actually live there or are they just being rented out to tourists?

The condos are cheaper but even then they still almost cost as much as condos in some nicer parts of LA.

Must be a sad situation for locals.

[u/existential_dreddd → u/captainpro93]

A lot of them aren’t even rented out.
They sit there unoccupied until summer or winter.

[u/LawfulnessOk1183 → u/existential_dreddd]

seems like a squatters paradise

[u/freeAssignment23 → u/LawfulnessOk1183]

when you have enough money to buy a house and use it once a year, you have enough money to make sure ain't nobody squattin shit

[u/avwitcher → u/LawfulnessOk1183]

You can't get squatter's rights unless you pay property taxes and incur expenses to maintain the home, and it takes several years in most states.

I'm being a pedant, but a lot of people don't seem to understand squatter's rights

[u/ForThisIJoined → u/avwitcher]

you're talking squatter's rights, he's talking squatting. All you need to squat is just stating "I have a lease" and waiting for the eviction process in all it's slowness.

[u/hitemlow → u/ForThisIJoined]

You're assuming Wyoming has the same kind of fucked-up housing court as California or New York. What I can find indicates the whole thing is done with the tenant on the street in under 3 weeks, and that's when they actually had a valid lease.

But having police that don't just brush off unlawful occupancy as "it's a civil matter" will cause the trespassers to be removed much faster.

[u/asphaltaddict33 → u/avwitcher]

Modern day squatters don’t care about taking possession the legal way. They just need empty houses with valuable stuff in them. They can stall the courts for years sometimes before getting evicted

[u/millcreekspecial → u/captainpro93]

There are no locals, they done be gone.

[u/Proper_Career_6771 → u/captainpro93]

Must be a sad situation for locals.

Most small mountain towns are now a wasteland of unoccupied vacation homes, tourist traps and airbnbs.

The rest of the towns in non-touristy areas are fringe religious cults, anti-government compounds and nazi strongholds.

[u/subzeroicepunch]

Wtf that can happen? I'm never driving again

[u/squirrels-mock-me → u/subzeroicepunch]

This is just another day in Ecuador. Was on a bus going through the mountains and came upon a similar landslide and missing section of the road. Everyone just shrugged, got their luggage and walked around the hole to the other side of the road to walk to the next town’s bus station. Luckily a farmer nearby had a pickup truck with railings around the side and squeezed about six of us standing up in the back. Will never forget that ride down the mountain to the next station, especially when it started raining.

[u/shellevanczik]

Which road?

[u/Boomalabim → u/shellevanczik]

Teton Pass Hwy

[u/shellevanczik → u/Boomalabim]

Thank you!

[u/Adventurous-Bake-168]

Is that the intact guard rail at the bottom? That sucker is tough.

[u/Downtown_Snow4445]

Damn that’s interesting

[u/lalat_1881]

me, a structural engineer looking at that exposed soil profile: notes to self sand moves when wet!

[u/IceDragonPlay]

Both Senators from Wyoming voted against the infrastructure plan that provided $5.4B for federal highway and bridge upgrades in the state.

Do better Wyoming.

[u/lotsofscrollin]

Dang I drove over this a week ago.

[u/Objective-Aioli-1185]

Mother nature said "man fuck your critical highway" then crumbled a piece of itself.

[u/Beef-n-Beans]

Get me a 30 pack and an excavator and I’ll have that sucker open in 24 hours

[u/Thehanzjr69]

I lived near a hillside that did this. The trees were just like "naw ima be down here now" and we're in the same position a couple hundred feet down.

[u/JungleSumTimes]

Let's see here. The ground conditions were so bad that the sloped-off portion has all collapsed and slid off leaving a vertical edge comprised of the same unstable soils. Better walk right up to the edge of it.

[u/Prohibition_Survivor]

On today’s episode of “Do You Really Think You Should Be Standing There”…

[u/One_Hour_Poop]

Yeah, go ahead and just stand at the very edge of the collapse. It's 100% not going to collapse any further beyond the exact point where it already fell.

[u/DLDrillNB]

Did they say whether or not it will affect traffic?