An around-the-clock road construction project that will limit Red Mountain Pass to a single lane and delay traffic up to 30 minutes through the summer is set to begin April 13.
The Colorado Department of Transportation announced Thursday that a crew will begin the second season of installing so-called crib walls, retaining structures that go on hillsides below the roadway to stabilize and reinforce them.
Last year, crews constructed four crib walls on U.S. Highway 550. This year, the fifth and final wall will be finished at mile marker 79.5 – just south of the summit of Red Mountain Pass.
Crews also will install culverts and mesh walls on the hillsides above the road.
From April 13-15, there will be lane closures as crews set up work zones.
Then, from April 15 to Aug. 31, work will require one-way traffic with alternating lane closures 24 hours a day, seven days a week with wait times varying between an estimated five to 20 minutes. Scheduled blasting operations will require road shutdowns in each direction for more than 30 minutes.
CDOT will release a plan of blasting operations once a schedule is determined.
“It’ll certainly be an inconvenience, but the difference is only one site is under construction as opposed to the three we had last year,” CDOT spokeswoman Nancy Shanks said.
“So this may seem like breezing right through for people.”
Shanks said there may not be as much blasting, which would reduce the instances where crews must hold traffic up in both directions.
“We’re doing everything we can to minimize those delays,” she said.
This story has been corrected to show that crib walls are built below a road for reinforcement of hillsides. Other retaining structures can be used above roadways.
