Authorities have confirmed a third person died in the massive wreck and fire that ignited Friday in the Green River Tunnel on Interstate 80.

News of the third death came as authorities worked to clear destroyed vehicles from the charred and damaged westbound tunnel. The Wyoming Highway Patrol now believes the crash involved 26 vehicles: 16 commercial and 10 passenger. Eight were completely destroyed by the fire, the Wyoming Department of Transportation reported Sunday.

As of Sunday afternoon, Wyoming Highway Patrol had cleared away about half of the vehicles involved in the fire. Four passenger cars and nine commercial vehicles were removed from the crash site on Saturday night, according to WYDOT.

The crash ignited a fire that proved challenging to extinguish due to safety concerns over falling debris including electrical equipment and lighting. The fire prevented emergency responders from performing certain lifesaving measures until conditions improved, Wyoming Highway Patrol Major James Thomas said.

In addition, there were reports of explosions within the structure, possibly from burning transformers hauled by one of the semi-trucks involved in the wreck.

Long process ahead

Authorities are still investigating the cause of the wreck. The highway patrol is conducting one examination while the National Transportation Safety Board performs its own parallel review.

“It’s really going to be a long process, just because of the level, the magnitude of the incident, and being able to document everything we need to make sure our investigation is thorough and we can get a good understanding of what happened,” Thomas said.

Photographs released Sunday by WYDOT showed the blackened interior of the westbound tunnel, with debris hanging from the ceiling. The remains of multiple burned-out vehicles could be seen.

Still, “initial investigations show no signs of collapse in the westbound tunnel,” WYDOT Director Darin Westby said Saturday in a statement.

As heavy black smoke poured from the site Friday, authorities shut down both tunnels, along with 108 miles of westbound I-80 from Rawlins to Rock Springs. Eastbound traffic has been temporarily rerouted through Green River, which offers its own challenges due to the aging infrastructure under a road that’s now experiencing a high volume of heavy semi-truck traffic.

WYDOT says its engineers are confident of the eastbound tunnel’s structural integrity. Officials plan to route both directions of traffic through that tunnel by mid-week.

Structural assessment

Speaking at a press conference on Saturday, WYDOT Bridge Inspector Randy Ringstmeyer said engineers performed an assessment of the eastbound tunnel on Friday night and did not find any anomalies. They did, however, discover extensive damage in the westbound tunnel, though there were no issues with the integrity of the rock.

“We’re not expecting the mountain to collapse, the tunnel to collapse,” he said. “That’s not going to happen. It’s safe there. The issue is that the inside of the tunnel is lined with concrete, and the fire has damaged some of that tunnel liner. We are actively seeing some loose concrete coming down now, the first responders are having to avoid some of those areas.”

The concrete liner in the tunnel is 1 foot, 3 inches thick. Inside, there are steel ribs. Engineers plan to use hightech tools to look for sagging or other geometrical anomalies.

“Basically, every square foot of that tunnel liner needs to be assessed,” Ringstmeyer said.

In the meantime, the state’s transportation agency said it had contracted with DeBernardi Construction to set up concrete barriers for guiding both eastbound and westbound traffic through the eastbound tunnel rather than detouring traffic through Green River.

Gov. Mark Gordon visited the crash site on Saturday, where he met with local emergency responders and was briefed by the highway patrol and WYDOT engineers. At a press conference, Gordon said he’d been in contact with Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem about the deadly crash and had directed all available state resources to support the local effort.

The governor also took time to recognize local law enforcement, the highway patrol and firefighters who worked the wreck and blaze.

“This has been an especially hard time for your folks,” he said. “I know the circumstances were really tough and did not allow for as much as everybody wanted to do.”

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