The Wyoming Department of Transportation (WYDOT) is a government agency charged with overseeing transportation infrastructure for the U.S. state of Wyoming. WYDOT's stated mission is "to provide a safe, high quality, and efficient transportation system."
With nearly 2,000 employees based in about 60 locations, WYDOT constitutes Wyoming's largest and most widespread state agency. The department is responsible for planning and implementation of road improvement projects, conducting road maintenance, managing driver licenses and motor vehicle programs, supporting airports and aviation, and coordination among its divisions, including the Wyoming Highway Patrol.
WYDOT headquarters are located in northwest Cheyenne adjacent to the Central Avenue Interchange (exit 12) on I-25. In addition, road construction and maintenance operations are divided among five field districts, headquartered in Basin, Casper, Laramie, Rock Springs, and Sheridan.
WYDOT was formed in 1991, incorporating the Wyoming Highway Department, along with the Wyoming Aeronautics Commission and transportation-related elements of the Wyoming Department of Revenue and Taxation and the Wyoming Public Service Commission.
The old Highway Department had existed since 1917, when it was created in response to the Federal Aid Road Act of 1916, in which Congress decreed that as a prerequisite for the receipt of federal funds, a state must have a highway department (or similar agency) in place and functioning. Until that time, road improvements were the responsibility of local governments.
During the 1920s, as the pace of road improvement picked up, so did the need for maintenance. In Wyoming, the initial maintenance work was very basic in nature and carried on only during the summer. Winter motor travel was practically unknown in those days, consequently the agency's maintenance forces were laid off in the fall of the year, with only a few mechanics retained to overhaul equipment.
Winter maintenance begins
Winter maintenance and snow removal outside of the mountainous areas was first undertaken on a large scale in the fall of 1929. Some snow removal on a very limited mileage had been carried on since the Department bought its first snowplow in 1923, but the agency had acquired only 13 plows up until 1929. That year, another 33 plows were purchased.
By then, it was becoming obvious that taking steps to effective reduce snow drifting and accumulation on the roads was just as important as snow removal. The department began engineering grade raises, wider rights of way, removal of guardrail and similar drift-causing structures, and the first snow fences were erected during this era.
1930s: Paving work accelerated
While during the 1920s, the focus was mainly on "getting out of the mud;" with improvements consisting of improving drainage and topping roads with gravel. By the 1930s the Highway Department had raised its sights to providing durable all-weather surfacing.
An excerpt from the department's 1930 annual report read, "The construction of … low-style surfaces such as gravel shale and crushed stone ... has only provided a temporary solution to the problems of providing adequate highways. Increasing traffic … has made it impossible to satisfactorily maintain the traffic-bound gravel road ... There is a continuing loss of surfacing material which is expensive and often difficult to replace."
Initially, the remedy was 'oiling,' whereby heavy asphaltic oil was sprayed atop a layer of gravel or other base material; a process was also referred to as 'inverted penetration." Oiling was soon supplanted by paving with bituminous mix (asphalt),a process still in wide use. Paving with concrete was also performed, albeit on a limited basis initially. (Concrete is now used more commonly, primarily in urban or high traffic rural settings.) By 1939, more than 90 percent of the state highway system had been paved.
Wyoming Highway Patrol organized
During the 1920s and early 1930s, Wyoming had a state 'Department of Law Enforcement' in place, mainly to enforce Prohibition. Over time, agents became increasingly busy enforcing motor vehicle laws, so when Prohibition ended, the need was apparent for some sort of regulation and enforcement authority on the highway with its steadily increasing traffic, including commercial vehicle regulation.