Main-Burkitt-Coffeen Intersection About To Close For Construction

A major intersection of the south side of downtown Sheridan is about to close for construction.

WYDOT says the Main-Coffeen and Burkitt intersection on the south edge of downtown will close to motor vehicle traffic on Wednesday, May 15th, so that construction work can begin in the area.

A portion of Coffeen Avenue just east of the intersection will also be worked on, but the intersection of Coffeen and Gould Street will be open.

Crews that have been replacing the pipes underneath Main Street between Loucks and Coffeen and Burkitt have already reached the south edge of the current construction zone.

As a result, Oftedal Construction, which is the main contractor of the Main Street project, requested that the Main-Coffeen and Burkitt intersection close 2 weeks ahead of schedule, so that pipe workers aren’t sitting around and waiting.

WYDOT Sheridan Resident Engineer Jake Whisonant says the department granted the request, and in anticipation of a change in traffic flow for motorists traveling northward toward downtown via Big Horn Avenue, a nearby traffic light on Coffeen will be temporarily reprogrammed.

“The traffic coming off of Big Horn Avenue onto Main Street, they’ll be diverted down College and then onto Sumner and then they’ll come out at that intersection there next to Ridley’s and so we will look at retiming that light to accommodate an unusual traffic load coming out of that Sumner intersection.”

Whisonant adds because construction plans are proceeding ahead of schedule, the work on the downtown Main Street area could be finished by the end of July instead of middle-August.

The Main and Loucks Street intersection is scheduled to reopen on Friday, May 24th.

There’s also work that needs to be done on the Main Street bridge over Little Goose Creek and on the Main and 17th Street intersections, but contractors are thinking about waiting until the downtown portion of Main Street is finished first, so as not to have multiple projects on Main Street going on at the same time.