In January 2025, Teton County commissioners sat through a public meeting that ran close to six hours. One longtime Wilson resident spoke about a cabin in Wilson. Over the years it had been the first microbrewery in Wyoming, then "a hippie crash pad," and now it was on its fourth pizza parlor. His point was that Wilson changes constantly. What he asked for was modest. "I would like a way to get over to Nora's, over to the bank, over to the bike shop, over to the bagel shop," he told the board, as reported by the Jackson Hole News&Guide.
The construction on Highway 22 since late July is that request being built. The street it leaves behind is not a standard Teton County pathway. Commissioners changed the plan at that meeting so it would read as a small-town sidewalk, and most of what drivers will see once the barriers come down traces back to those edits.
What Evans Construction Is Putting In
The work is the Wilson Active Transportation Improvements project. In county records it is Component #5 of a federal BUILD grant that covers 13 transportation projects along the WY-22/ID-33 corridor between Jackson and Driggs. A county staff report from May 26, 2026 lists the scope:
- About 2,100 linear feet of multi-use pathway on the north and south sides of WY-22
- Shoulder widening on the highway
- Stormwater collection and treatment
- A rectangular rapid flashing beacon
- Retaining walls, signage and striping
The project page on the BUILD grant site puts the estimated cost at $5 million and calls the job a link for regional pathways along WY-22 through Wilson, with business access consolidation and safety updates included. Buckrail reported in mid-July that crews would start the following Monday with survey work, utility marking, barriers and lane shifts. Work hours were set at 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. on weekdays, and access to homes and businesses would "generally be maintained."
That is the engineering. What makes it a Wilson project is how far the finished street moved away from the county's usual pathway design.
The Standard the Board Set Aside
Teton County's paved paths follow a familiar pattern. According to the News&Guide, standard pathways are 10 to 12 feet wide, standard sidewalks are 6 feet, and the paths were first planned in black asphalt, "like essentially all pathways across Teton County and the town of Jackson."
The approved plan comes in under that standard. The board set paths at 10 feet through most of the corridor and allowed sections in downtown Wilson as narrow as 8 feet. Commissioner Natalia Macker had preferred 8 feet throughout and said the county should do "everything we can do to make it as sidewalk-like as possible." The surface also changed. Instead of plain black asphalt, commissioners chose stamped, colored asphalt for most areas and concrete in a few, even though concrete costs considerably more.
The county's design-options document describes stamped, colored asphalt as a replacement for the black asphalt surfacing. The result will look different from the black ribbon of path along the rest of the valley.
Block by Block, What Changed Before Construction Began
The bigger edits are tied to specific places. Pathways Coordinator Brian Schilling and Public Works Director Heather Overholser reworked several sections before the vote, and commissioners added more changes at the meeting.
| Location | What the approved plan does |
|---|---|
| Outside Nora's Fish Creek Inn, the Stagecoach Bar and the Teton Gravity Research office | Sloped ground replaces retaining walls and safety railings |
| North side, east of the Wilson business center | Some curb and gutter removed, opening roughly 150 to 250 feet of parking |
| South side of the highway | Curb and gutter realigned to free about 100 feet of parking |
| North side, east of Fish Creek | Path segment eliminated |
| WY-22 at West Street and Fall Creek Road | Pedestrian crosswalk with a flashing beacon added |
| Hungry Jack's and Fish Creek Center | START bus turnouts kept |
The retaining walls carried the most weight in the debate. Many critics argued that walls would block wildlife movement through a town where moose are known to pass. The 2026 contract still lists retaining walls in the project scope, so they were not removed from the whole corridor. At the three properties in the table, the plan uses grading in their place.
Those three are some of Wilson's oldest landmarks. A 2023 grant application to survey downtown Wilson's historic resources named Nora's Fish Creek Inn, the Stagecoach Bar and Hungry Jack's General Store as historic properties. The design changes are concentrated around the buildings that give the stretch its character.
Why the Bus Pullouts Survived
The bus turnouts were the one element opponents argued hardest against that stayed in the plan. Some commenters said too few people board in Wilson to justify pullouts for the START commuter buses headed over the pass to Victor and Driggs. START Director Bruce Abel answered that the plan eliminates much of the informal gravel shoulder the buses use now. Buses can't stop for passengers in the middle of a busy highway, so without formal turnouts, he said, the commuter service through Wilson would have to end.
That follows from the parking and shoulder changes. Widening the shoulder and adding curb and gutter turns the loose edge of the road into defined lanes, and that loose edge was where the buses had been stopping. At the January 2025 meeting, three buses ran through Wilson on their way to Idaho. Commission Chair Mark Newcomb suggested the pullouts might later double as space for delivery trucks when commuter buses aren't running.
The other end of that bus route has changed since. The Stilson Transit Center opened to START buses on Aug. 11, 2026, with EV charging, bike parking, e-bike charging, restrooms and indoor monitors showing bus and Teton Pass shuttle schedules, Buckrail reported. Formal stops in downtown Wilson give that hub a defined place to pick up and drop off on the Wilson side of the pass.
The Dates in the Contract
The construction notice gave "late fall" as the end point. The contract with Evans Construction is more specific.
- Nov. 20, 2026. The asphalt pathway is due to be "completed and available for use," including all paving, signing, markings and drainage. The contract defines substantial completion as "the full use of asphalt pathway."
- Dec. 23, 2026. The project is due to be complete and ready for final payment.
As of Oct. 8, that leaves about six weeks before the pathway milestone. These are contract deadlines, not a progress report. The BUILD announcement warned that schedules could shift with weather, material availability or site conditions, and we found no public update since July on how much of the corridor is finished. The BUILD grant site offers weekly email updates with project progress, traffic information and schedule changes, and it is the most reliable place to check before a morning drive.
Drivers headed over the pass have seen a second change this fall. WYDOT scheduled sign work on Teton Pass for Sept. 21 to 23. The work included "Must Stop Brake Check" signs at the summit, "No Parking" signs at the runaway ramps, and low-gear and steep-grade warnings that now apply to all vehicles.
Where Wilson's Stretch Fits on the Map
The BUILD grant files the project under the Greater Yellowstone Trail. The downtown work is the middle segment of a longer chain of pathway projects. To the east, the Wilson-to-Stilson pathway is a separate project, with its own pedestrian bridge over Fish Creek. To the west, in July 2026, commissioners approved building the first three segments of the Teton Pass Trail. That stretch is about 1.7 miles of separated pathway from Trail Creek Campground to the WYDOT weigh station, with no construction start date reported yet.
The approved plan runs paths from the base of Teton Pass through downtown to Fish Creek. Once the downtown stretch is finished, someone could ride from Stilson toward Trail Creek on dedicated path for much of the way. In the few blocks past the Stagecoach and Nora's, that path will be narrower, colored rather than black, and bordered by sloped ground instead of walls, because Wilson asked for that at the commission meeting.
The western end of the corridor already has its own construction story this year. We covered it in the Moose-Wilson Road closure and the longer Death Canyon shutdown.
Questions about how the finished Highway 22 corridor relates to a particular Wilson property, from parking and access to frontage, are the kind we enjoy working through with neighbors. The Legacy Group is glad to talk it over whenever it's useful to you.
