"The only way that WYDOT would be open to reducing the speed limit (through Alpine) is by putting in something like this," Mayor Eric Green told Cowboy State Daily in late September, while plastic bollards still ringed the intersection of U.S. 89 and Greys River Road.
That sentence explains the whole three-week test. The roundabout was a way to make a case about how fast traffic moves through Alpine, and that case is now being turned into data. The bollards came out on Oct. 14. The corner is back to the layout a safety audit flagged in June. Meanwhile, the road behind it is about to switch from hunting-season pickups to snowmobile trailers.
The Test Was About 35 Miles an Hour
Green ran for mayor on a promise to slow traffic in town. He told Cowboy State Daily the idea "was laughed at," and that earlier administrations had been told there was no way to get traffic in town below 35 miles an hour. The Town's Sept. 1 council minutes describe the demonstration the same way: a test of traffic calming after WYDOT declined to simply lower the speed limit.
The money came from a federal Safe Streets and Roads for All grant. Alpine split its $300,000 award into two pieces, $40,000 for the demonstration and $260,000 for its contract with the consulting firm Kimley-Horn, which is writing the town's Transportation Safety Action Plan. On Sept. 1 the council approved paying Idaho Traffic Safety up to $25,663.03 for traffic-control equipment, labor, striping, wheel stops, installation and removal. The whole demonstration was estimated at about $44,000.
The Star Valley Independent reported that WYDOT supported the grant application, reviewed the proposals and designs, and planned informal monitoring of the highway, while Kimley-Horn handled the formal data collection. U.S. 89 is a state highway, so a traffic circle on its own could not lower the limit. The traffic counts and camera footage are the town's evidence to WYDOT.
Why This Corner and Not Another
Green told Cowboy State Daily that Greys River Road is the busiest access corridor for the Bridger-Teton National Forest, with thousands of vehicles turning off the highway onto it year-round. The US 89 Road Safety Audit, dated June 2026, looked at the whole highway through town. It found high summer speeds and traffic volumes and pedestrian crossings that need work. At this intersection, its notes were specific:
| Spot | What the audit observed | What it suggested considering |
|---|---|---|
| Greys River Road at US 89 | Wide turning radius onto Greys River Road; no stop bar for traffic exiting it | Reconstructing the intersection with a tighter truck apron and marked turn lanes |
| Crosswalk at US 89 and Greys River Road | Right-turning vehicles from Greys River Road not looking for pedestrians in the crosswalk | An RRFB, curb bulb-outs and updated signage, or moving the crosswalk south to midblock |
| Crosswalk at US 89 and Center Street | Poor retroreflectivity and lighting | The same RRFB, bulb-out and signage package, or a midblock relocation |
An RRFB is a rectangular rapid flashing beacon, the push-button flashing lights mounted at crosswalks. None of these recommendations has been built. When the temporary striping came off, drivers went back to the wide turn and the missing stop bar the audit had already documented.
For anyone who doesn't think of it as a traffic problem, this is simply the corner of Alpine's everyday errands. The SVI Alpine business directory lists Ace Hardware at 100 Greys River Road, Greys River Sports at 106, Family Dollar at 109, Lincoln County Customs at 110, and Cobblestone Hotel & Suites at 111. Chevron is listed at 120 Hwy 89, and the Alpine Civic Center sits at 121 US Highway 89, next to Marge Grover Memorial Park, where the Thursday farmers market ran through Sept. 24 this year. Hardware runs, fuel stops and hotel check-ins all use the same few hundred feet of turning lanes.
Three Weeks, One Rough Day
The demonstration opened Sept. 22 with temporary pavement markings, plastic bollards and marked crossings. Installation day went badly. Green told Cowboy State Daily that rain held up the striping for three hours, and crews were still flagging traffic at 6:30 p.m., in the middle of the evening commute. He said a second contractor day would have cost more, and he apologized for the frustration.
The same article reported plenty of criticism, and one of the main complaints was the size. Green agreed: "A permanent roundabout would be much larger," he said, adding that the only way to test one was to fit it into the existing three-lane highway. The paper also ran a 2023 Town rendering of a permanent roundabout at this intersection, which shows a far bigger footprint than the bollard version.
So the three weeks tested whether a roundabout slows highway traffic at this spot. They did not show what a full-sized one would feel like to drive. Green said he had already seen traffic slow to 15 miles an hour to get around it. The Town's project page puts it plainly: "No decisions about permanent improvements have been made."
Where the Data Goes Now
Traffic counters and a WYDOT camera recorded the intersection during the test, and the Town ran a 10-question community survey that closed Oct. 21. The survey asked where respondents live, how often they drove through, how traffic flow compared, and how comfortable they were with a roundabout.
Town Administrator Riley Hovorka told the Star Valley Independent that Kimley-Horn will present the data and survey results at a council meeting in November or December. No specific date had been announced. After the Nov. 2 session, the Town's meeting calendar lists these Town Council meetings for the rest of the year, all at 7 p.m.:
- Tuesday, Nov. 17
- Tuesday, Dec. 1
- Tuesday, Dec. 15
The agenda for whichever meeting carries the presentation will show whether the numbers back the mayor's 15-mile-an-hour observation.
The Road Behind the Corner Changes in November
The roundabout question is about the turn onto Greys River Road, and over the next six weeks, the traffic making that turn changes.
Nov. 16. Bridger-Teton Forest Order 04-03-304 closes Area 2, the area immediately south of Alpine described as the East half of Section 32, T37N, R118W, to all public entry through April 30. The order's only listed exemptions are permitted persons and officials or rescue personnel on duty. The order dates to 2019, and the Forest Service alert was last updated June 11, 2026. The same order closes Area 1 near Forest Park, about 34 miles south of Alpine, starting Dec. 1. The Greys River Ranger District has the final word on these boundaries and what they cover, and the order itself is the text to read before heading out.
Dec. 1. The Greys River Snowmobile Trailhead, about a mile east of town on Greys River Road, closes to wheeled vehicles through May 1. The Forest Service lists truck-and-trailer parking and a vault toilet there. A Forest Service project record says the Town plows the winter lot at the forest boundary just east of Alpine.
Dec. 15. Wyoming State Trails lists the Wyoming Range grooming season as Dec. 15 through March 15, weather permitting. The system covers about 337 miles, with main trails groomed weekly, and Alpine is named as a snowmobile access town.
That means the vehicles turning off U.S. 89 here in winter include trucks pulling sled trailers, the same long rigs the audit had in mind when it called for a tighter truck apron. Any permanent design has to handle them. That is part of why the 2023 rendering is so much larger than the bollard test.
The Pavement Under All of It
Greys River Road needs work too. Jorgensen Engineering's June 2026 report to the council listed "Greys River Road replacement design and RFP" among capital projects. The June 23 council packet shows about $39,000 added to the FY26 budget for engineering and design on the Greys River Road repaving. Design was funded and future paving reserves were discussed, but no construction money had been set aside.
Whatever Kimley-Horn recommends for the turn off U.S. 89 will be built where a newly designed Greys River Road begins. The bollards are gone, and the decisions about this corner are now in the council packets for Nov. 17 and December.
If you're weighing a home or land purchase along the Greys River Road side of Alpine and want to know how the corner's plans could affect your daily drive, The McPeak Group follows these council meetings and is happy to walk you through what's on the table. When you're ready to see where your own property stands, request a home valuation.
