Here is a small bit of news from my corner of Wyoming…
The City of Green River is in the middle of a citywide beautification project. And boy does it need it! But there is a small problem, There is an underpass that goes under the western yard leads, and the concrete structure is quite the eyesore. The years have left the surface pockmarked from all the weather, and it might as well be a skating rink in the winter. And the local vandals havent been kind to it either.
Here is the full story from The Casper Star Tribune
Fixing the old subway: City, railroad differ on 70-year-old agreement
By JEFF GEARINO
Southwest Wyoming bureau
GREEN RIVER – In 1936, town fathers and Union Pacific Railroad Co. officials banded together with the fledgling Wyoming Highway Department to build a state-of-the-art railroad underpass at the west end of the massive switching yard in the heart of downtown here.
As part of the deal, the town and railroad struck a unique bargain about who would maintain, repair, clean and keep the new viaduct free from drainage problems.
That 70-year-old deal is now at the center of a dispute between this small southwest Wyoming mining town and the giant railroad that helped build it.
Green River officials are charging that Union Pacific is breaking the spirit, if not the letter, of that original contract by not contributing even a small amount of money to an ongoing, $2 million renovation of the historic railroad underpass.
The project aims to clean up the deteriorating eyesore the underpass has turned into, Green River officials said.
City officials said the Second South Street railroad underpass is in extremely poor aesthetic condition due to drainage and seepage problems beneath the bridge. The old, decaying structure poses significant s