The fences that saved Wyoming big money and cut crashes by 70%
Wyoming’s snow fences don’t just stop drifts, they cut snow-removal costs by up to 50% and improve visibility during blowing snow, according to transportation officials.
The fences prevent snow from blowing across roadways in the winter, reducing crashes and snow clearing costs.
At first glance, Wyoming’s snow fences look like a simple line of wooden slats planted in empty country. But along some of the windiest highways in the United States, they’ve become a quiet money-saver that also makes winter driving safer.
Wyoming learned that lesson after Interstate 80 opened in October 1970. Within months, a 77-mile stretch between Laramie and Walcott Junction was repeatedly buried by snowdrifts as deep as 16 feet, forcing a 10-day closure amid near-zero visibility and wind gusts up to 100 mph, according to the U.S. Department of Transportation. Wyoming’s transportation crews had a nearby example of what worked: the older U.S. Route 30 corridor, which benefited from snow fences that helped protect the Union Pacific railroad and the road beside it.
So in 1971, Wyoming DOT began installing snow fences where drifting had been worst. The payoff surprised even the people who built them. The fences didn’t just stop massive drifts from piling onto the pavement, they also improved visibility during high-wind events and helped keep the roadway clearer of ice by reducing how much snow blew across the road surface.
Over time, snow removal costs dropped 50%, and the accident rate fell by 70% during snowy, windy conditions.
"Snow fences" built across a typically windy landscape. (Getty Images/alptraum)
WYDOT’s Winter Research Services explained that blowing snow behaves a lot like sand in a stream: It keeps moving until something slows the flow, then it drops out and piles up.
Wyoming-style structural snow fences are wooden structures roughly 6 to 14 feet tall, anchored into the ground, designed to slow the wind so snow builds a drift near the fence instead of on the road.
The result is a safer driving surface, fewer whiteout moments from snow sweeping across lanes and less work for plows to do after each round of wind-driven snow.
The state also supports “living snow fences,” windbreak plantings built in partnership with the Wyoming State Forestry Division and local conservation districts to help keep state highways safer and reduce winter maintenance costs.
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