Alpine is teaming up with a an engineering  firm for an in-depth look at traffic in the rapidly growing western Wyoming community. The firm working the community to prepare the  Alpine Safety Action Plan.

“This plan is a federally funded grant that Alpine received to look at how they can reduce fatal and serious injuries within the town limits, and to look at what projects would help eliminate those severe crashes, Jacob Farnsworth engineer with Kimley-Horn explained. “We have busy intersections, we have the intersection of Greys River  Road and we have the intersection going up to Snake River Canyon.”

The Alpine plan will address the entire community. “We are looking at the town as a whole,” he said. “Every town has unique aspects and different characteristics that cause conditions that could be improved for safety.”

The final product will show a plan that “extends a little bit beyond the town boundaries,” Farnsworth advised.

Mayor Green recalled the extensive process of finding funding for plan.

“We’ve been trying to do this for the last three years, and we had our funds frozen for a period of time, and when they were unfrozen, it was like an 80/20 match through the federal government. Then we got another grant to fund our match. So it’s 100% funded project.”

He continued, “We’re excited about Kimley Horn coming on board and getting this project moving forward.”

The mayor said the next steps will be working with the Wyoming Department of Transportation on a demonstration project.

He explained the town council discussion had centered on a demonstration project that would include a temporary roundabout at the Greys River Road.

The proposal was reviewed in a Thursday night public meeting and with a public display at the community’s weekly Farmer’s Market.

“At this point, we’re just trying to get the word out and let people know that’s what was decided,” the mayor said. “You are likely to see a temporary roundabout at Greys River Road in the not too distant future, so we can study the impacts that will bring to the safety of the citizens in the Town of Alpine.

With a display at the market and a public meeting the mayor advised, “This is part of the process.”

He continued, “We have to let everyone know what has been selected as our demonstration project and then take in all the feedback, listen to concerns that people have, and make sure that we’re listening to those concerns and acting upon them when it comes to the potential implementation down the road of an actual roundabout there.”

Mayor Green noted advantages of the roundabout would, “in general, slow people down, coming through Alpine and make  it safer for people to come in and out of the Greys Road subdivision, or those subdivisions back there.” He added, “there’s so much traffic on Greys River Road, especially in the summer with people accessing the Bridger Teton National Forest.”

Farnsworth said, first evaluting the project will be important. “I would just say this is a great project, because it allows us to not only implement a temporary demonstration project that can be evaluated before and after, and look at the potential for a long term project.”

He noted, “It won’t be here in the winter, but also it’s allowed us to take a look at the town as a whole and develop 12 different safety improvement projects in various spots around the town.”

The engineer added, “Right  now, we’re showing people what our potential solutions would be and getting impact so they can provide input on what those projects should be. “We’ve been getting a lot of good input from the town and the residents here, and it’s been fun to interact with them.”

The Alpine Safety Action Plan’s final product will include descriptions and costs for the town council and community to review.