Travel center coming to town

Alexis Barker
NLJ News Editor
 
Shortly a year after bringing the Newcastle Lodge and Convention Center to town, D A Peterson & Associates is once again bringing new development to Newcastle. This time the company’s property development sector plans to bring a travel center to the intersection of U.S. Highways 16 and 85, near the Fountain Inn on the eastern edge of town. 
“Ever since I hit town looking for land for the hotel, 90 percent of the people I have talked to said the town needed a hotel but not only that, that Newcastle needed a truck stop,” President Doug Peterson said. “If you are pulling anything big on either of those highways now you have to come into Newcastle and fight the traffic. There is not an easy grab and go on the highway, and we are going to provide that. There is lots of traffic in that area and it is a need.” 
According to a June 10 press release, the 14-acre development will include a modern 5,000-square-foot travel center with all the amenities the traveling public needs. The travel center will also include a fast-food drive through, although Peterson admits he cannot divulge the name of the chain he is after publicly at this time.
 “The site now includes an RV park which will remain at present, with future plans for expansion and branding with a national brand,” the release states.
The travel center site will include a gas service canopied island which will have the capacity to handle 10 vehicles at one time, as well as a canopied fuel island that can service four trucks at one time. All of this will be located on seven of the 14-acre development, allowing for surplus room for entering and exiting along with overnight parking. 
The Wyoming Department of Transportation has approved plans, after what Peterson said was a lengthy process, to construct an entrance off of Highway 16 to compliment the one in place on Highway 85. 
According to Peterson, dirt work on the project will begin in the next 30 days. 
“There is a lot of dirt work that has to go on, because that area is so low we have to build up four feet of filler,” Peterson told the News Letter Journal.
Despite the amount of dirt work needed for the project, Peterson plans to have the projected completed by the spring of 2020.