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Keystone Wye | |
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| Coordinates | 43°55′29″N103°26′33″W / 43.92472°N 103.44250°W /43.92472; -103.44250 |
| Carries |   US 16 /US 16A |
| Maintained by | South Dakota Department of Transportation |
| Characteristics | |
| Material | Glued laminated timber |
| History | |
| Designer | Clyde Jundt |
| Opened | 1966 (1966) |
| Location | |
 Interactive map of Keystone Wye | |
Keystone Wye is aninterchange ofU.S. Route 16 (US 16) andUS 16A located in theBlack Hills ofSouth Dakota, featuring two unique structuralglued laminated timber bridges. The Keystone Wye is a three-level Directional Tinterchange for the twodivided highways, constructed in 1967–1968 as part of a project by theSouth Dakota Department of Transportation (SDDOT) to convert US 16 to a four-lane highway betweenRapid City andKeystone. It was designed by Clyde Jundt and Kenneth C. Wilson.
The high bridge is supported by three 20-meter (66 ft) wooden, single-hingedarches; six separate glued laminated timber pieces are used in the construction. Three more pieces were built but failed quality assurance tests; they were assembled into a pyramidal sculpture which for years was located just off US 16 on the then-south edge of Rapid City (a site today occupied by a motel and convenience store), and which was moved to a new location on US 16 near theSitting Bull Crystal Cavern Dance Pavilion in the mid-1990s.[1]
The name "Keystone Wye" significantly predates the construction of the modern interchange and dates back to the 1930s and the construction of Mount Rushmore, when Senator and GovernorPeter Norbeck laid out a series of roadways in the south-central Black Hills for tourist travel, focusing onMount Rushmore and Harney Peak (nowBlack Elk Peak). The Keystone Wye includes alay-by with historic and scenic information about the area, a SDDOT maintenance yard, and several minor roads connecting to the major highways. In the late 1980s, US 16A between the Keystone Wye and Keystone itself was widened to a four-laneundivided highway, with the singletunnel on the road expanded to accommodate the wider roadway. In the early 2000s, US 16 between the Keystone Wye andThree Forks was improved to a "Super-Two" configuration with passing lanes on most hills, although the alignment was unchanged from the 1980s realignment project which created many cutoff loops on the highway.
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