A project for a turning lane on County Road 210 accessing Lake Nighthorse is expected to go to bid next month.
“This has been budgeted several years, but we didn’t want to get ahead of ourselves with Lake Nighthorse,” La Plata County Engineer and Public Works Director Jim Davis said. “The Bureau of Reclamation is going ahead with entrance construction.”
The $350,000 project will coincide with construction of the entryway to the lake.
Lake Nighthorse was filled in 2011, but recreation has been delayed as the Bureau of Reclamation, the Animas-La Plata Project, regional native tribes and other stakeholders try to find a recreation plan that doesn’t disturb natural and cultural resources.
A draft environmental assessment on lake recreation is open for public comment to the Bureau of Reclamation until May 6.
In a meeting, La Plata County commissioners expressed skepticism about moving forward with the project given the history of slow progress on all things Lake Nighthorse.
“This has been in starts and stops,” Commissioner Julie Westendorff said. “I’m just sensitive about betting on something that has been prospective for so many years. I don’t want to build a ‘turn lane to nowhere.’”
Construction of the left-hand turn lane is anticipated to take two or three months, Davis said.
