Wyoming sees traffic rising on its interstate highways

(AP) — Wyoming has no large cities and still has plenty of wide-open spaces, so it's largely escaping the traffic gridlock that's increasingly gripping many urban areas around the country.

[...] Wyoming still is seeing plenty of traffic, and the state's chief highway engineer said it's having trouble covering wear and tear on its highways that's largely caused by heavy trucks that are only passing through.

Traffic on Interstate 80, the main east-west arterial across the state, averages over 8,000 vehicles a day, said Del McOmie, chief engineer with the Wyoming Department of Transportation.

Wyoming lawmakers recently considered the prospect of putting toll booths on I-80 to help cover maintenance costs, but they decided against it.

Lawmakers approved a 10-cent increase in fuel taxes that went into effect in 2013, hiking the per-gallon tax from 14 cents to 24 cents.

While McOmie said the state's Department of Transportation is waiting to see how much money it will receive out of a pending federal highway bill, he said he doesn't anticipate a dramatic funding increase.