CHEYENNE, WY The Wyoming Transportation Commission awarded contracts totaling $14.6 million for six highway projects throughout the state.

LeGrand Johnson Construction of Logan, Utah, was conditionally awarded a $5.3 million contract for improvements to nearly 6 miles of U.S. 189 immediately north of La Barge, Wyoming. The work will include grinding off 4 inches of deteriorating pavement, mixing it with additives and using it as the base for 4 inches of new pavement. The road also will be widened to include three-foot safety shoulders. It will be the last section of U.S. 189 to be widened, and the contract completion date is November 30th.

Cheyenne, Wyoming's, Knife River was the low bidder at $3.9 million for improvements to five miles of Interstate 80 between the Third Street Interchange in Laramie, Wyoming, and the base of Telephone Canyon. The work will include milling off deteriorating pavement and replacing it with a new layer of pavement, and it is scheduled to be complete by October 31st.

C.M. Owen Construction of Jackson, Wyoming, won a $3.6 million contract to build a runaway truck arrestor system on WYO 22 about 2 miles west of Wilson, Wyoming. The highway's downgrade on the east side of Teton Pass is 9.5 percent, one of the steepest on any Wyoming highway. The CatchNET system to be installed will be similar to one already in operation on U.S. 16 west of Buffalo, Wyoming, which uses a series of arrestor cables to safely stop trucks carrying loads of up to 90,000 pounds and traveling up to 90 mph. That system has been used successfully six times. The contract completion date is October 31, 2016.

Geneva Rock Products of Murray, Utah, was the low bidder at $912,000 for microsurfacing on 8 miles of I-80 west of Green River by October 31st. The work will extend the life of the pavement by using a thin asphalt overlay to address cracking and other deterioration.

Surface Preparation Technologies of Mechanicsburg, Pennsylvania, submitted the low bid of $624,000 for installing centerline rumble strips to improve safety on 400 miles of highways in Albany, Campbell, Converse, Fremont, Lincoln, Natrona, Niobrara, Sublette, Uinta, and Weston counties by August 31, 2016. Among the highways getting the rumble strips are WYO 59 from Douglas, Wyoming, to the Montana border, WYO 50 from Gillette, Wyoming, to Pine Tree Junction, U.S. 85 from Mule Creek Junction to the South Dakota border, U.S. 20-26 from Powder River, Wyoming, to Shoshoni, Wyoming, and U.S. 287 south of Laramie.

Cheyenne's Reiman Corp. won a $207,000 contract to repair concrete barriers at two locations along U.S. 14A about 24 miles east of Lovell, Wyoming. The barriers were damaged by two crashes. The contract completion date is October 31st.