 - The City of Riverton undertook about $9 million in construction projects in 2025, Public Works Director Brendan Thoman reported this month - and outside sources will cover more than half of that cost.){kind=link}
(Riverton, WY) – The City of Riverton undertook about $9 million in construction projects in 2025, Public Works Director Brendan Thoman reported this month, and outside sources will cover more than half of that cost.
“About $5-6 million of (the total) comes from grants or other sources besides the city fund,” Thoman told the Riverton City Council during a regular meeting on Dec. 2.
1 percent
For instance, Thoman said, the city’s optional 1 percent sales tax fund committed more than $3 million to infrastructure improvements in 2025 – but that total was matched by an additional $2.5 million in grants and county funding.
“So (we did) about … $5.5 million worth of projects,” Thoman said, noting that, “as a comparison, last year we did about $2 million.”
This year’s most expensive 1 percent project is still “very visible at this point,” Thoman said, referring to the work taking place along Riverview Road near Major Avenue.
The $4.2 million Riverview Road Reconstruction Project – almost $1.9 million of which will be covered by Fremont County – features the reconstruction of about one mile of roadway, the replacement of water and sewer utilities, the installation and expansion of the storm drain system, the reconstruction of a pathway and installation of sidewalk, and the installation of roadway lighting from Spire Drive to Major Avenue, according to Thoman’s report.
“That will include five additional light posts between the Major Avenue intersection back into town to Spire Drive,” Thoman said. “It’ll light up that pathway very nicely.”
Thoman also highlighted the changes coming to the intersection of Riverview Road and Major Avenue, which will now feature three lanes for motorists coming from all directions.
The intersection does not warrant a four-way stop, he added, explaining that, while “a lot of people have asked (for) that” at Major and Riverview, the typical parameters for installing a four-way stop involve “equal traffic coming from all directions,” and “in this particular intersection, 60-70 percent of the traffic come from east-west.”
The intersection will still be safer, however, Thoman said, pointing to the additional turning lanes that will be installed as part of the project, as well as the walking path that will be routed across Major Avenue, with only one crosswalk available on the east side of Riverview Road.
“The walking path … will actually connect to an eight-foot wide sidewalk between Major Avenue and Spire Drive,” Thoman said. “So the whole area will become more walkable – and even more so with the Willow Creek project, which will connect to the south of this project.”
The same contractor will complete both jobs, Thoman said, so “the seamlessness of those two projects should be really noticeable.”
The City of Riverton will pay for almost $468,000 of additional work on Major Avenue as part of the Riverview Road project, Thoman added.
Smith Road
The 1 percent fund also covered the $480,000 South Smith Road Drainage and Paving Project this year, Thoman continued.
The Smith Road project eliminated two “major dips” in the area where drainage previously “channeled right across the road,” Thoman said.
“Surface drainage (now) flows underneath the street,” he explained. “(And) the whole street was brought up to a standard that would handle industrial traffic through the area. So what was six-inch concrete paving without reinforcement is now eight-inch concrete paving with eight-inch base material. …The roadway is a tremendous amount smoother at this point.”
More than 100 feet of sidewalk was installed in front of the nearby ball fields as part of the project, Thoman said, and the whole area was brought up to Americans with Disabilities Act standards, making the roadway “walkable” and “providing safe crossings for pedestrians across Smith Road.”
Airport Road
Another effort that was supported by the 1 percent fund this year was the Airport Road Maintenance Project, Thoman said.
The project resulted in upgrades to 60-year-old Airport Road, which has been degrading over time, Thoman said, explaining that, “especially on (the) approaches, the road keeps chipping off.”
“As it chips off, it narrows up the entire roadway, and you see it as you go up the road,” he said. “So we elected to replace a lot of the approaches.”
Crews also identified “spots where the road was damaged on the side,” Thoman said; those areas were milled and widened so “proper maintenance could occur … through the winter.”
“It’s not a perfect fix,” he said. “But it’s a continual fix that we hope to put money towards each year – and then put in things like a pathway, lighting, a new intersection down at U.S. 26. (Those are) all things in the works for this project for Airport Road.”
Concrete, slurry, striping
A 1 percent project that was carried over from last year featured the replacement of more than $380,000 of concrete pavement throughout the city in 2025, Thoman said, including five alley approaches and nine ADA ramps.
Near the U.S. Post Office on Main Street, for example, Thoman said “the curb and gutter has been in really poor condition for years, (and) even the parking space up to that curb and gutter has been switched out numerous times.”
At some point, “ASR concrete was put back in there,” Thoman said, describing that material as “concrete that becomes reactive and then starts breaking apart after about 10 years.”
The concrete being installed as part of this year’s project is guaranteed not to be ASR-reactive, Thoman said.
The city also continued slurry sealing in 2025, spending about $396,000 in 1 percent funding to cover almost nine miles of roadway – three more than in 2024, and “with a little better of a price,” Thoman said, recalling that last year’s slurry seal project cost about $2.5 per square yard while this year the price worked out to about $2.30 per square yard.
The 2025 Spruce Street Utility Replacement Project was “kind of a carryover as well,” Thoman continued, explaining that the city’s 1 percent fund contributed about $400,000 to the work, while almost $500,000 came from a Mineral Royalty Grant.
The project features the replacement of almost half a mile of water line, the installation of more than 1,340 feet of sewer mainline, and updates to the storm drainage at North Sixth Street East and Pine Street, Thoman said.
The 1 percent fund paid for more than $30,000 of roadway striping this year too, covering about 7.5 miles of roadway, Thoman said, including two miles each on Broadway Avenue, Sunset Drive, and Airport Road, and 1.5 miles on Monroe Avenue.
Other projects
Before this year’s slurry seal project began, Thoman said Riverton’s streets and alleys crews were able to apply 1.5 tons of crack seal to local roadways.
“That’s kind of a proven system that brings about more life on the road,” he explained.
Crews also used 3,400 gallons of Dura-Patch Emulsion and 50 tons of rock to repair local roads in 2025, Thoman said.
“That was done to fix some minor repairs before a lot of the slurry seal was put down as well,” he explained.
In addition, Thoman said crews swept about 90 miles of street this fall and used about 40 tons of asphalt to complete “some full-depth repairs around town.”
A leak detection study was completed this year for about $40,000, Thoman added, and as 2025 comes to an end, the city continues to plan more projects, including a wastewater treatment plant process upgrade that is supported by a $2.8 million grant, and a water treatment plant tank reconditioning project that is supported by a $660,000 grant.
Mayor Tim Hancock commended Thoman and municipal employees for their work this year, noting that “any time I’ve been driving, I’ve seen city crews out doing something.”
“(They’re) just out, hard at work,” Hancock said. “I appreciate it, (so) thank you – and thank you to our contractors and partners that we’ve had in these projects.”
Thoman noted that his report didn’t include two “major projects” that were completed at Central Wyoming Regional Airport, where the terminal and general aviation apron were rebuilt this year.
Both were “multi-million dollar projects” that the city only had to match at 2.5 percent, Thoman said.
For more information, call the City of Riverton at (307) 856-2227.