Colorado Hwy 50 CLOSED west of Gunnison

[folivier]

Just an FYI but yesterday the Hwy 50 bridge over Blue Mesa Reservoir west of Gunnison Colorado was closed indefinitely due to damage found during an inspection. So far there is no date for repairs to be completed.
The ONLY east/west routes as of now are I-70 and Hwy 160 until snow is cleared off mountain passes. But those will probably be restricted to cars and trucks and most likely just locals.
So if you're planning a Colorado trip keep close watch on this.
Sorry that's all the info out there but hopefully more upcoming as CODOT gets a plan for repairs.

 

[Out of Steam]

I thought I'd been over this bridge, and a look at a map confirms it.

 

[folivier]

The inspectors have found a few more cracks, still haven't issued a plan to repair or replace the bridge spans. The local detour CR26 is only open once each way for 30 minutes in early morning and late afternoon. During the day they're hauling more gravel to build up the road bed for (hopefully) a bit more traffic. Still restricted to local traffic and cars and trucks under 16k pounds. Don't plan on taking Hwy 50 anytime soon.
Our trip back to our cabin in a few weeks will probably add another night in a hotel.
Our friends' school kids have either been staying in town with friends or home schooling. They did have to take a boat ride a few days but didn't like that.
Thankfully we have access to Montrose for shopping.

 

[audreyh1]

Wow! Glad we visited last year!

They have more chargers planed along US 160 so we had hoped to travel SW Colorado that way in the future anyway as it has been our preference.

 

[sparky08]

CDOT has opened another route, CR26, but is currently only allowing passenger cars through. Once in the morning and once in the evening.

Colorado is full of routes that don't have a good alternative. I live near one end of Glenwood Canyon. I70 is often closed for accidents, mudslides, rock slides, fire. That requires about a three hour detour.

https://www.codot.gov/news/media/assets/county-round-26-detour-fact-sheet-english.pdf

 

[folivier]

As of yesterday CR26 had 3.5 miles of 14 surfaced with road base. Pictures show a decent surface. They're working on the remaining sections each day. Possibly once the entire section is completed they might open a 3rd time in early afternoon but still probably only for local traffic. I have a few friends that have to travel it each day and they're saying it adds an additional hour or more to the trip from near our cabin to Gunnison, plus time waiting in line for the pilot car. Not sure how the snow this weekend will affect the work on CR26, we have had about 6" at the cabin so far and expect more today. We plan to arrive at our cabin around May 20th and hope we can take our normal route rather than have to go through Durango adding a few more hours and probably a third night in a hotel.
Yeah Sparky hopefully there won't be any mudslides on I-70 this year. Haven't they done remediation work in that area?

 

[TheWizard]

Google maps has that highway closed until 2026!

 

[folivier]

Unless CDOT decides to replace all of the spans I think and hope that they can replace and/or repair where the cracks are. That could be done in a couple months.

 

[Willers]

This is a bummer for us because I used to live in the area and was planning a visit back there is early summer. I guess I'll skip BM this time.

 

[sparky08]

Yeah Sparky hopefully there won't be any mudslides on I-70 this year. Haven't they done remediation work in that area?

They did what they could. There must have been 15 slide areas in Glenwood Canyon the year after the fire. They would close the canyon during every T-storm warning. They did work on the major ones and they rarely close the canyon for fear of mudslides anymore.

We get several closures because of rock slides every spring. The freeze/thaw cycle sends some rocks down once in a while.

Semi accidents were getting bad. This winter they limited them to the right lane and a reduced speed and that seemed to help.