Highway 50 Middle Bridge ready to accommodate all vehicles

Normal operations hoped for by winter but expect delays for right now

By Mark Reaman

While the major Highway 50 Middle Bridge repair project isn’t expected to be completely finished until May of next year, the mission has reached the point where no vehicles will be prohibited from crossing the structure. The goal is to have the bridge ready for normal two-way traffic before the winter season. 

The Colorado Department of Transportation (CDOT) cleared the bridge Wednesday to be used for all vehicle types for the first time since last April when the bridge was closed after major structural issues were detected. Starting this week, vehicles including semi-trucks, commercial buses, trailers and large motorhomes will be permitted to use the bridge located over Bue Mesa Reservoir between Gunnison and Montrose. Thus, the bridge is now open to all vehicles for a single lane configuration to all legal loads. 

The bridge will be open 24 hours a day but given the single lane traffic flow, there will still be delays involved. The large heavy vehicles like semis will also be piloted across the bridge one at a time. Final construction activities will continue during overnight hours, from 11:30 p.m. to 6 a.m., and late-night travelers can expect longer wait times, similar to what they have been encountering at the Lake Fork Bridge.

On a quick Monday evening press call, CDOT director Shoshana Lew said the project “was on the cusp of another major milestone with the bridge. Crews have been working around the clock and the teamwork with all the agencies including Gunnison County has been great. There is still work to be done but we anticipate a two-way configuration for the bridge to be in place by winter.”

Lew said the bridge will still feel like a construction zone for a while longer, “but it will feel like a normal construction area.”

CDOT region 3 program engineer Jason Smith said a pilot car will still be used to guide traffic over the bridge 24/7 for the time being. He said the more intensive work will happen overnight so those delays could be a little longer than the daytime traffic holds.

“The larger CMV (commercial motor vehicles) will be led one at a time across the bridge so that could add some time to the delay, but it shouldn’t be more than what has been experienced recently, about 20-30 minutes at the most.”

Kiewit project manager Jason Proskovec agreed. “It has taken a lot of hard work to get to this point,” he said. “And there is still a lot of work to do. The recent nice weather has really helped us make progress. We hope to get most of the priming and painting done on the Middle Bridge this fall but we expect to have to come back to finish the painting next spring and finalize the project in May of 2025.”

The CDOT representatives said the Lake Fork Bridge that was discovered to have similar issues as the Middle Bridge is about three weeks behind in its upgrades compared to the Middle Bridge. They said the “plating work” on the Lake Fork structure is about 50% complete at this point but that bridge work is progressing nicely, and it too is expected to be completed in May of next year.

Opening the bridge to all vehicles will bring an end to pilot car operations on County Road 26 that was used as the major detour this past summer. This road will remain open for travel and can continue to be used as a local alternate route as long as weather conditions allow. The same goes for Kebler Pass Road as Lew said both routes will return to normal restrictions and close when weather becomes the issue.

Vehicles approved for crossing over the US 50 Middle Bridge:

• Passenger vehicles

• Pickup trucks (including pickups with in-bed camper tops)

• Vans 

• All Class A motorhomes

• Larger Class C motorhomes

• Semi-trucks

• Commercial buses

• Pickup trucks with a gooseneck trailer or a 5th-wheel camper or trailer

• Motorcycles

• Emergency vehicles, ambulances and fire trucks

• School buses

•¾ ton or smaller pickups with bumper pull trailers (boats, campers, side-by-sides)

• Compact Class C motorhomes

• Small single rear axle box trucks

• Tow trucks