Well, this is a mess.
On the highway over Teton Pass, near the Idaho-Wyoming border, the fallout happened on the Wyoming side, though that was the luck of the draw. The Wyoming Department of Transportation said that the sequence of events started on June 6 with a motorcycle crash on Wyoming Highway 22 (which is the continuation of Idaho 33), observation of a possibly-related pavement break, and a quick repair job, after which traffic flowed normally. The Idaho Transportation Department has been providing assistance.
Next day, travelers spotted a mudslide in the same area, and Wyoming staff “surveyed the area and investigated the cause of the mudslide and have determined it was more than likely due to the heavy water saturation and spring runoff. With warmer weather, the chance of further issues will decrease. Water continues to come off the mountain, but maintenance crews have been able to channel the runoff off into controlled drainage ditch and into a culvert.”
WYDOT also reports, “we have affectionately named [it] the Big Fill Slide.”
Since then, the road has been closed. Having driven it a number of times, I can attest that a fix will be challenging and unlikely to be finished swiftly.
Until it is, it’s a problem for the whole region.
Idaho’s Teton Valley area, and its main communities of Driggs and Victor, has been among Idaho’s growth spots economically and demographically, among the few in a truly rural area. That has a lot to do with its close ties to Jackson, Wyoming, also a boom location. The connection has been symbiotic, partly because of business spilling over from one side to the other (mainly from Jackson to Driggs and Victor) but also because a lot of people made their homes on the Idaho side, partly because of property availability and cost but maybe also in part because of how crowded and busy Jackson is becoming.
Highways 22 and 33 are the lifeline patching this two-state community together. Ordinarily, it’s a short and slick commute: From Victor to Jackson is just 24 miles over the pass, and most (not all) of the drive usually can be done at full highway speed.
Problem is, there are no easy alternate routes. To the north, you’d drive for many hours all the way up to West Yellowstone, go through the national park, and south to Jackson - wholly impractical for anything less than a scenic day trip. The preferred route will run to the south, from Victor over the mountains down into Swan Valley, along the Palisades Reservoir to the Wyoming line, then north to Jackson - just shy of 100 miles, much of it over mountain terrain. Decent highway, but a long drive of the getting-old-fast variety if you’re doing it twice daily.
There’s really no one to blame here, but a few points probably should be made.
The Teton Pass route is only one of many single-option routes for getting from place to place around Idaho. There are places where geography and population combine strongly enough that multiple plausible routes for getting around are available, such as in the Ada-Canyon area (near the larger cities), in the Magic Valley and central Kootenai County and in the Upper Snake-Idaho Falls area. But for most of the state, commerce, emergency considerations and regular traveling is highly dependent on every major road remaining open and working.
That’s a stresser. And it’s not alone even this year. Work on the Rainbow Bridge near Smiths Ferry this season creates real blockage along Highway 55, a key route between the Boise area and places north. The highway may no longer be deserving of the Goat Trail label it long had, but it remains a thin line of connection between major regions of the state.
Topography and budgets will be constraints into the future against fully developing a system with adequate backups for travelers. But the idea of doing better, over the long haul, would be worth considering. If there's no one to blame for the shutdowns today in places like Highways 22 and 33, people half a century from now would be right to wonder why we didn’t at least start to look into how we might do better in years to come.