Work to connect the “Bridge to Nowhere” to U.S. Highway 550 atop Farmington Hill is scheduled to begin in spring and be completed in up to three years, the Colorado Department of Transportation said this week.
CDOT awarded a $98.6 million contract to two Denver-based companies to design and build a 1.7-mile realignment of Highway 550. The proposed route would direct southbound traffic to the existing U.S. Highway 160 interchange near Grandview.
The project is designed to bypass the steep Farmington Hill, which officials say will not withstand the region’s expected growth in population and traffic. CDOT has planned the route through private land attained in 2019 by eminent domain.
The announcement came after more than a decade of land negotiations and an unanticipated archaeological surprise.
State officials sought an eminent domain claim for land to complete the project in 2018 after about a decade of negotiations and legal battles with property owners Chris Webb and Martha Coutinho. The ranchers settled with the state to sell the land in April for $2.5 million.
Archaeologists in August unearthed ruins from people who lived in the Southwest around the year 800. The site included ceremonial sites, large pit houses and living quarters.
Seven sites were discovered in the path of the soon-to-be built highway, three of which were considered eligible for the National Register of Historic Places because of the significant buried cultural remains and structures found there.
CDOT in September announced it would continue with plans to build the Highway 550 interchange despite calls for preservation of the archaeological sites.
The new alignment will have less than a 4% grade, designed to be safer than Farmington Hill’s grade of more than 6%.
bhauff@durangoherald.com
