The Crested Butte News Serving the Gunnison Valley since 1999
Work resuming in January before pausing for winter
[ By Katherine Nettles ]
The construction work on U.S. Highway 50 between Gunnison and Montrose along Little Blue Creek Canyon is not quite ready to pause for winter yet, but authorities say they will announce a date soon for some time in January. In the meantime, there will be a temporary break in roadway construction for the upcoming holidays from Thursday, December 22 at 4:30 p.m. until the first week of January. During that time the highway will be open to two-way traffic with no scheduled delays or closures.
“We are going to open the road to two lanes on December 22 at 4:30 p.m.,” confirmed project spokesperson Kathleen Wanatowicz on Tuesday. “It will be open to two lanes through January 3 or so, and then somewhere between January 3 and January 6, one or two of those days there will be alternating traffic to get a little bit of additional work done.”
Paving operations occurred earlier this week and striping will take place over one or two days during the first week of January before the winter pause.
“We are not yet certain when winter work will halt until spring,” said Wanatowicz, who predicted it would be sometime in January. “There may still be some work on the right of way, but we will not have any traffic delays,” she said. Then in spring of 2023 active construction will resume and continue through summer, including some alternating traffic and nighttime closures.
The four-mile highway improvement project is being conducted by the Federal Highway Administration and the Colorado Department of Transportation (CDOT), and it is scheduled for completion by fall of 2023.
