Wyoming Transportation Commission approves 8 contracts for projects totaling almost $30M

The Wyoming Transportation Commission has awarded contracts totaling $29.5 million for eight projects around the state, including two highway projects to be funded through a 10-cent increase in the state fuel tax.

The projects include repaving nearly 7 miles of Interstate 25 near Buffalo and 5 miles of U.S. Highway 287 about 15 miles southeast of Lander.

Riverside Contracting of Missoula, Montana, submitted the low bid of $16.3 million for the I-25 project. LeGrand Johnson Construction of Logan, Utah, was the low bidder at $4.9 million for the work on U.S. 287, a project to be funded by state fuel tax revenue.

The Legislature raised Wyoming's fuel tax to 24 cents per gallon in 2013.

The other project to be funded in part by the fuel tax will be chip-sealing work on highways in Campbell, Crook, Johnson, Sheridan and Weston counties. Bituminous Paving Inc. of Ortonville, Minnesota, won a $3.4 million contract for that work at Thursday's commission meeting.

Other upcoming work will include repairing damaged concrete at an Interstate 80 overpass in Rawlins. Simon Contractors and Subsidiaries of Cheyenne received that $1.8 million contract.

Pavement improvement is planned along U.S. 30 in Albany County, U.S. 85 in Laramie County and several state routes in Laramie County under a $2.1 million contract that went to Knife River in Casper.

Approved projects not involving road work include improvements to several runways around the state and an irrigation canal near Lingle.