After almost a month of dawn-to-dusk, seven-days-a-week work, Colorado Department of Transportation crews are aiming to open Red Mountain Pass on Monday or Tuesday.
“It’s been so hard,” said Nancy Shanks, the CDOT communications manager for Southwest Colorado. “On a regular project, we could have given a completion date, but we’re still saying it’s possible we’ll open on Monday.”
CDOT plans to make a decision late Sunday afternoon.
The road has been closed since Jan. 12, when a rockslide covered U.S. Highway 550 about 2 miles south of Ouray. Since Jan. 31, traffic, alternating in one lane, has been allowed to pass for two hours in the morning and evening. Traffic will be limited to one lane for the foreseeable future.
Opening the pass and keeping it open also is contingent on the weather.
“What we’re talking about here is opening it from the rockslide work,” Shanks said. Snow and avalanche mitigation are another factor altogether and could cause at least short-term closures.
But the weather has been more friend than foe throughout the process.
“We’ve been so fortunate that we didn’t have bad weather for most of it,” Shanks said. “Then, when it snowed some, it was when we needed it to stay cold and cloudy, to keep it locked in.”
It may be hard to predict when the pass will open, but Shanks credits the crews and contractors for completing a difficult project in the most timely manner possible.
“They’ve been working whether it’s balmy or brutal,” she said. “I hope people will see them for the heroes they are.”
The work was highly dangerous for much of the time. It included three separate helicopters flying in hazardous conditions, expert climbers, consultants and even a few bighorn sheep knocking rocks from on high, hitting areas where the workers were hanging by safety harnesses.
Only one injury was reported, and that was by a worker hit on the arm by a falling rock.
Red Mountain has been closed for so long, and the work the crews have done is so demanding, the project has received national attention, including a story in Thursday’s USA Today.
The cost, not including CDOT staff and crew costs, is estimated to be about $670,000 to date, Shanks said. But because CDOT may need to install a more permanent solution after winter ends, the pass may be closed for more work when warmer weather arrives, leading to more expenses.
Rockslide, then rockfall
Red Mountain Pass often sees rockfall, ranging in size from pebbles to boulders. But Jan. 12, the pass experienced a rockslide. A football field-sized slab of quartzite slid down the Ruby Walls section of the pass about 2 miles south of Ouray, shattering when it reached the highway. It covered the road with tons of debris, in some places up to 10 feet deep.
After clearing the road, CDOT reopened the pass, only to close it several hours later when two cars traveling the route sustained broken windshields and another had a flat tire from rock littering the road.
Both the rockslide and the rockfall were caused by freeze-thaw temperature swings.
“In the morning, the whole area is locked up, or frozen,” Shanks said. “Between 9 a.m. and noon, things start thawing, and rocks start falling. It picks up again at 4 p.m., when things start freezing again. They found new debris on the road every morning.”
Rockfall lessened when a series of storms began to move through area starting Jan. 29, keeping the temperatures uniformly cold. But blocks of ice began falling instead, forcing an early stop to work Thursday.
On Jan. 31, CDOT was able to open one lane for alternating traffic for two periods a day, from 6:30 to 8:30 a.m. and from 4:30 to 6:30 p.m. Crews needed the road closed the rest of the day so they could build a 24-foot-tall rockfall fence along the inside lane. Those hours will remain in effect until the pass reopens full time.
Spiritual lifeline
Red Mountain Pass is a critical link between the small mountain towns of Silverton and Ouray, as well as serving as the main artery for traffic flowing north and south on the Western Slope. In Silverton, the long closure forced several businesses to shut down for the duration.
Aaron Brill, the owner of Silverton Mountain ski area, said that February makes his year, and many of his February skiers come from the south via Ouray. Brill and seven members of his crew worked on the project, and he loaned his helicopter.
But Red Mountain Pass doesn’t just serve as a lifeline for goods and services for the people living in the remote towns of Silverton and Ouray; it provides a spiritual link, too.
The Rev. Matt Foshage is a roving priest, based at St. Daniel’s Catholic Church in Ouray, but he also celebrates Mass and ministers to the flocks of Our Lady of Sorrows in Nucla, St. Patrick’s in Telluride and St. Patrick Mission in Silverton.
“I normally drive about 250 miles in the course of a weekend,” he said. “Last weekend, I drove about 430 miles, because it’s 210 miles, instead of 25, going the long way.”
While it’s not unheard of for Red Mountain Pass to be closed because of avalanche control, it has never been closed this long in the 18 years Foshage had made the circuit.
“In the past, I’ve had to go the long route several times,” he said. “One year, avalanches ran on both Red Mountain and Molas Pass, and I was stuck in Silverton for four days.”
Having Red Mountain open for two two-hour periods each day has been helpful. He changed the schedule in Silverton and celebrated Mass at 4:30 p.m. instead of the regular 5 p.m. Mass, allowing him to get back across the pass before it closed again.
Foshage is helping by doing what he does best.
“We ask for the safety and success of the workers on the mountain,” Foshage said of the prayers he and parishes offer.
It looks like those prayers will be answered with a yes within the next couple of days.
abutler@durangoherald.com
On the Net
Motorists are encouraged to check www.cotrip.org for the latest road conditions before setting out. Click on the green cellphone to receive real-time travel alerts.
