Highway 212, which runs from Laurel, along the Beartooth Highway and eventually to the northeast entrance of Yellowstone National Park, is a busy highway in need of improvement.
Starting Monday a focus of Highway 212’s reconstruction will be on the town of Roberts.
The work in the small southcentral town involves a complete reconstruction of the road, widening of the shoulders, intersection realignments and installing a left turn lane and crosswalks.
This two-lane highway serves a lot of local commuters as well as tourists.
“You’re looking at currently 2,800 vehicles per day on average, throughout the year, increasing almost 62 percent to 4,500 by 2035,” says Glenn Oppel with Strategies 360, a contractor on the highway project.
“That volume is going to increase substantially and the road needs to be improved to handle that kind of volume,” says Oppel.
Oppel says the project will also address a major issue with drainage.
“They are going to add some drainage in the ditches, and they are going to basically engineer it so all that runoff and irrigation water that has the potential to come into Roberts in the spring is going to be redirected to Rock Springs,” he says.
Highway 212 will remain open during the construction although travelers should expect delays. The project is expected to be completed by November of this year.
