Paving has started on Wyoming Highway 238 on the west of side of Upper Star Valley.

The state highway serves as a major connector route between Auburn and Afton, in addition to Auburn and U.S. Highway 89 at the Star Valley Narrows.

The heavily traveled road has been under construction during the summer of 2019, as crews have rebuilt the surface of the road and added wider emergency lanes. New or rehabilitated bridge crossings were included at Salt River, Crow Creek and Stump Creek crossings.

The Wyoming Department of Transportation and Wyoming Transportation Commission contracted with Kilroy LLC for the $6.9 million 12-mile project.

Darrin Robinson, WYDOT resident engineer explained “every big job requires a test strip,” which started this week at the intersection of U.S. 89 and WYO 238.

On Monday, he reported, “Today, they’re working at the intersection to lay down the test strip, so the contractor can get their roller patterns down.” Robinson said. “We want the proper density.”

He continued, “We’ll put about 500-ton out today and if the weather holds, we’ll start pulling main line.”
Once the test run is complete, the resident engineer said 2,300 to 2,500 tons will be put down daily as part of full production on the road project.

Robinson said the contractors will be working Monday through Saturday, with paving completed in 14 days.

In other news related to Star Valley area road projects, the Etna North four-lane has been moved back to 2021 with the Thayne North four-lane possibly overlapping and continuing into 2022.

The Freedom Bridge will also go through reconstruction work during the winter of 2019-2020.