LANDER - The Wyoming Transportation Commission awarded the biggest contract for road work in Cowboy State history Friday, kicking off the third summer of reconstruction of the Togwotee Pass highway.

The $65.3 million contract will pay for a 16-mile stretch of road between Togwotee Mountain Lodge and Tanner Park, which includes Togwotee Pass, at 9,658 feet above sea level.

This latest stage of construction will start in the coming weeks, and is scheduled to be completed by mid-summer 2011, said Dave Kingham, spokesman for the Wyoming Department of Transportation.

WYDOT drew up plans to revamp a 38-mile section of U.S. Highway 26-287 in the first half of this decade, and began construction, after some delays, in the summer of 2006. Togwotee Pass is a major access route for Grand Teton and Yellowstone national parks.

The relatively high cost of construction for this project is due to a variety of factors, including the location's high elevation, the rugged terrain and the short construction season, Kingham said.

Contractors have already completed work on a 10-mile section at the east end of the corridor near Dubois, and on the 5-mile Buffalo Fork River section at the west end.

The total cost of the first three contracts so far, including Friday's, is $105.7 million, Kingham said.

"We don't have an estimate of the cost of the final project, the 6.6-mile Rosies Ridge section, because it's not scheduled to start until 2010, and there's no telling what inflation will do to the cost of construction by then," Kingham said. "It is expected to be a challenging project, though, because of all the slide areas that need to be stabilized."

The Togwotee Pass highway cuts through the picturesque Wind River Valley, between Dubois and Moran Junction - with the Absaroka Range to the north and the Wind River Mountains to the south - and is a centuries-old trail that became a road in 1921.

It was last improved half a century ago, Kingham said.

"The big picture is, the 38-mile section must be rebuilt because it is failing structurally," he said. "It was last improved in 1958 and has reached the end of its useful life. Overlays and other maintenance work have covered some of the surface deterioration, but because the subsurface is degraded and crumbling, WYDOT can't continue to maintain it."

Because the highway must be rebuilt, it makes sense to bring it up to current safety standards, Kingham said, which have changed considerably in the past 50 years. New standards call for wider shoulders, turning lanes and passing lanes in some areas.

The Transportation Commission voted unanimously via teleconference Friday to award the contract to Oftedal Construction of Miles City, Mont., even though there was an apparent low bid of $63.8 million submitted by Fisher Sand & Gravel of Dickinson, N.D.

Kingham said there was an irregularity in Fisher's bid, which disqualified the company.

"They filled out their bid proposal incorrectly, so the commission felt like they had to reject it, to preserve the integrity of the bidding process," he said.

Fisher Sand & Gravel earlier this month was indicted on federal tax fraud and conspiracy charges in federal court in North Dakota, according to The Associated Press.

Detractors

While no environmental organizations came out in opposition to the project Friday, one area resident, along with a representative of a local conservation organization, voiced concern about the potential impacts an "improved" road will have on wildlife.

"I don't think any of the environmental organizations were 100 percent satisfied with what ended up on the table for this WYDOT project," said Louise Lasley of the Jackson Hole Conservation Alliance. "I think that the potential for wildlife-automobile collisions is probably going to be greater now than it was in the past, because a wider, straighter road will make it more difficult for animals to get across."

Pegi Sobey, a resident of Moran, said she's concerned about the number of trees the construction crews have removed, and she questions the wisdom of the safety improvements, which she believes will just lead to faster driving, and a greater number of elk, moose, deer and other animals hit by cars.

"Do we really need to reconstruct the road anyway?" Sobey asked. "It has very little traffic. It's a scenic highway. Do we really need to make it wider and straighter? Curves have a great way of slowing people down, better than speed limit signs. People are just going to drive faster now, I don't care how many signs you put up."

Before Friday, the largest contract awarded by the Transportation Commission was $46 million, for the reconstruction of four miles of Interstate 80 in Rock Springs, which began last year.

Reporter Chris Merrill can be reached at chris.merrill@trib.com or at (307) 267-6722.