The staff of this department as a whole has accumulated over 150 years of service to the county.  Dean Firnekas, the most senior member of the crew, has been with Johnson County for nearly 30 years.  This makes for an impressive institutional memory for the relative newcomer, Craig Cronk, to draw upon.

     The goal of the department is to maintain roads, cattleguards, culverts and bridges in the county so county residents and users from the mineral industries can travel safely.  Traffic counts taken on roads in Eastern Johnson County indicate that close to 850 vehicles per day likely travel there.  That is about 500 times the traffic the roads were designed for.  Needless to say, upkeep is difficult at best.

     Gravel is the newest premium commodity in the county, and finding a quality source near a project is becoming increasingly difficult.  This will make it harder to budget enough funds to cover increased fuel and labor costs for resurfacing projects.  Therefore, alternate aggregates, such as RAP and CBT, are being located and used to mix with gravel to create a surface that is more able to withstand the heavy traffic many of the roads are receiving.

     If you have questions or concerns that can be addressed by the Johnson County Road and Bridge, please call the office at 684-2262 or email them at cbenner@johnsoncowy.us.

Current Projects

TTT Road resurfacing

The Johnson County Road and Bridge Department’s big project is resurfacing the TTT Road south of Kaycee.  This area has been the location for bentonite mines for many years.  New pits have recently been opened, which has increased the volume of truck traffic on the road.

For a long-lasting solution to the maintenance question, Craig Cronk asked for help from the Wyoming Department of Transportation.  The Casper District had Recycled Asphalt (RAP), Cement Treated Base (CTB) and gravel stockpiled at Exit 210 on Interstate 25, which they graciously allowed Johnson County to use for the project.  This will create a harder, longer lasting surface than the use of gravel alone, and should not require as much maintenance in the years to come.

Keys Trucking and Eitel Trucking have volunteered to haul the aggregates back to TTT Road after dumping their loads of bentonite in Casper.  This cooperation of private industry saves substantial manhours and hauling expense, and accelerates the completion of the project.

The success of this resurfacing project can be directly attributed to the partnership between Key Trucking, Eitel Trucking, WYDOT and Johnson County.

Cattleguard Replacement project – Dead Horse Road, Upper Powder River and Schoonover Roads

Coal bed methane development has been concentrated in Eastern Johnson County, and is steadily increasing.  This has increased the amount of traffic on many county roads in the area, with Dead Horse, Upper Powder River, and Schoonover Roads being hit the hardest.  Cattleguards on these roads were not built to handle the volume of traffic, much of which is heavy, industrial traffic.  Therefore, to help insure the safety of area residents and coal bed methane operators, Johnson County has implemented a plan to upgrade the cattleguards on the roads with the most use.  Anadarko Petroleum, Williams Petroleum, Prima, and Petrox have already made contributions to this venture.   Western Gas and Yates Petroleum have also agreed to contribute.  Replacement will begin soon, weather permitting.

Dust Suppression

Dust has become a hot topic, precipitated by the continued drought and increase in traffic.  A dust suppressant was successfully applied on a portion of Upper Powder River Road to help control the dust created by increased traffic from two gravel pits operating in the area.  In keeping with Johnson County’s policy, companies operating in the area reimbursed Johnson County for the cost of the dust suppressant, and Johnson County supervised the application of the product.  As production at the gravel pits will continue, plans are underway for another application this spring.