The original story by for Oil City News.
If you’ve been driving Robertson Road on Casper’s far west side lately and thought, “Wait… what’s going on over there?” — you’re not imagining it. Construction is officially underway on a new pedestrian bridge that’ll connect the Paradise Valley neighborhood to the Robertson Road area as part of a bigger effort to stitch together Casper’s west-side trail system.
This bridge is part of Phase 2 of the city’s project to fully integrate a trail network across the western half of Casper — basically turning a bunch of disconnected segments into an actual, usable system.
According to the City of Casper, this phase of the project comes in at $1,940,490, with Gillette-based S&S Builders handling the work. Add a $200,000 contingency, and the city expects the total cost for this phase to land over $2 million.
A big chunk of the money isn’t coming straight out of Casper’s pockets. The city says most of the funding was awarded through the Wyoming Department of Transportation’s Transportation Alternatives Program.
On top of that, $830,084.37 is being chipped in through fundraising by the Platte River Trails Trust — the local group that’s been hustling for years to improve trails and access.
The city is covering the remaining $105,000 using unused funds from its fifth-cent optional sales tax.
The bridge itself is prefabricated, meaning it’ll show up in pieces and get assembled once the foundation work is done.
It’s not just a bridge-and-done deal, either. The plan includes more than 300 additional feet of concrete pathways to tie the bridge into existing trail segments on both sides of the river. The goal is a continuous, connected route — finally giving the community a full, finished system to walk, bike, and enjoy without dead ends.
An interactive Google map of the bridge site is also available in Oil City News’s coverage for anyone who wants to see exactly where the crossing will land.
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