Red Mountain Pass Closures

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tjf242424
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Red Mountain Pass Closures

Post by tjf242424 »

https://www.codot.gov/news/2021/july-20 ... power-line

Just learned of this yesterday. How this will affect trailheads between Ouray and Silverton is unclear. The road is open all night from 5:30pm to 8:30am, so in theory it should be possible to drive to TH's the evening before or early morning (before 8:30am). I'm not sure how leaving the TH in the middle of the day will work if the road is closed at that time.

It appears as though they're going to be working on the north side of the pass, but the closure extends nearly all the way from Silverton to Ouray.

*** See below on this page. This has apparently been postponed. ***
Last edited by tjf242424 on Sat Jul 17, 2021 5:34 pm, edited 3 times in total.
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greenonion
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Re: Red Mountain Pass Closures

Post by greenonion »

tjf242424 wrote: Sat Jul 17, 2021 5:04 pm https://www.codot.gov/news/2021/july-20 ... power-line

Just learned of this yesterday. How this will affect trailheads between Ouray and Silverton is unclear. The road is open all night from 5:30pm to 8:30am, so in theory it should be possible to drive to TH's the evening before or early morning (before 8:30am). I'm not sure how leaving the TH in the middle of the day will work if the road is closed at that time.

It appears as though they're going to be working on the north side of the pass, but the closure extends nearly all the way from Silverton to Ouray.
Is that pass on the million dollar highway? 550 I think??
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greenonion
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Re: Red Mountain Pass Closures

Post by greenonion »

greenonion wrote: Sat Jul 17, 2021 5:08 pm
tjf242424 wrote: Sat Jul 17, 2021 5:04 pm https://www.codot.gov/news/2021/july-20 ... power-line

Just learned of this yesterday. How this will affect trailheads between Ouray and Silverton is unclear. The road is open all night from 5:30pm to 8:30am, so in theory it should be possible to drive to TH's the evening before or early morning (before 8:30am). I'm not sure how leaving the TH in the middle of the day will work if the road is closed at that time.

It appears as though they're going to be working on the north side of the pass, but the closure extends nearly all the way from Silverton to Ouray.
Is that pass on the million dollar highway? 550 I think??
Sorry. Didn’t see the link at first. Got it now. Thanks for the info!
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cottonmountaineering
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Re: Red Mountain Pass Closures

Post by cottonmountaineering »

Thanks for the heads up!
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Bombay2Boulder
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Re: Red Mountain Pass Closures

Post by Bombay2Boulder »

BTW this is postponed-
"Highway 550 Red Mountain Extended Closure plan scheduled to start Monday July 19th is being temporarily POSTPONED

The extended closure that was for the San Miguel Power Line Project on Northbound Hwy 550 that was scheduled to start Monday July 19th has been put on temporary HOLD.

It was in partnership with the City of Ouray's Mayor Greg Nelson, other City of Ouray officials, City of Ouray administrator and San Juan County Commissioner Scott Fetchenhier, Commissioner Austin Lashley and our local SMP representative Terry Rhoades who spoke up for our communities that this temporary hold was put into place.

These local leaders understood the magnitude of the impact of the 8 hour a day closure on Red Mountain Pass to our communities and have requested a partnership going forward with San Miguel Power and Colorado Department of Transportation on the timeline of this necessary project. Fire mitigation work needs to be done on the pass for the power line project and extended closures on Red Mountain are going to be necessary in our near future.

More information will come out as soon as we know.

DeAnne Gallegos
Public Information Officer
San Juan County Colorado"

https://www.facebook.com/sjcoem/
tjf242424
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Re: Red Mountain Pass Closures

Post by tjf242424 »

Well that's a relief. This was going to be pretty crippling for Ouray and Silverton in terms of tourist traffic over the pass. I'm not surprised that local leaders spoke up. It seemed to come out of nowhere. I drove over the pass on Tuesday night and saw nothing regarding any closure, but signs were in place by Friday.
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Re: Red Mountain Pass Closures

Post by Bombay2Boulder »

https://www.smpa.com/content/red-mounta ... nt-project
New schedule of the closure is out.
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Re: Red Mountain Pass Closures

Post by Alpinefroggy »

tjf242424 wrote: Sat Jul 17, 2021 5:32 pm Well that's a relief. This was going to be pretty crippling for Ouray and Silverton in terms of tourist traffic over the pass. I'm not surprised that local leaders spoke up. It seemed to come out of nowhere. I drove over the pass on Tuesday night and saw nothing regarding any closure, but signs were in place by Friday.
This was actually something that my out of state civil engineer parents were consistently talking about as we were driving from the front range to ridgeway and ouray areas.

The shear amount of daytime road closures on major thoroughfares during the day for significant periods of time was really bizzare for them. In my home state (CA) work is often done at night when closures are necessary or at least some accommodations for one way traffic in each direction.

I’m not doubting the importance of any of this work and for some areas like the narrow section between the resovoir and montrose on 50 might need full closures, but these closures all over the state don’t make any practical sense for the communities near them.

Waved closures and full direction closures on I70, the bridge work on 285 on fairplay, 50 blasting, and now this pass are all really bizzare fusterclucks of long daytime closures and little communication soon beforehand contribute to a lot of issues for travelers and truckers in these areas.
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SkaredShtles
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Re: Red Mountain Pass Closures

Post by SkaredShtles »

Alpinefroggy wrote: Sat Jul 24, 2021 11:51 am
tjf242424 wrote: Sat Jul 17, 2021 5:32 pm Well that's a relief. This was going to be pretty crippling for Ouray and Silverton in terms of tourist traffic over the pass. I'm not surprised that local leaders spoke up. It seemed to come out of nowhere. I drove over the pass on Tuesday night and saw nothing regarding any closure, but signs were in place by Friday.
This was actually something that my out of state civil engineer parents were consistently talking about as we were driving from the front range to ridgeway and ouray areas.

The shear amount of daytime road closures on major thoroughfares during the day for significant periods of time was really bizzare for them. In my home state (CA) work is often done at night when closures are necessary or at least some accommodations for one way traffic in each direction.

I’m not doubting the importance of any of this work and for some areas like the narrow section between the resovoir and montrose on 50 might need full closures, but these closures all over the state don’t make any practical sense for the communities near them.

Waved closures and full direction closures on I70, the bridge work on 285 on fairplay, 50 blasting, and now this pass are all really bizzare fusterclucks of long daytime closures and little communication soon beforehand contribute to a lot of issues for travelers and truckers in these areas.
I suspect you'll find the answer lies in $$$$.
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Re: Red Mountain Pass Closures

Post by Alpinefroggy »

SkaredShtles wrote: Sat Jul 24, 2021 11:56 am
Alpinefroggy wrote: Sat Jul 24, 2021 11:51 am
tjf242424 wrote: Sat Jul 17, 2021 5:32 pm Well that's a relief. This was going to be pretty crippling for Ouray and Silverton in terms of tourist traffic over the pass. I'm not surprised that local leaders spoke up. It seemed to come out of nowhere. I drove over the pass on Tuesday night and saw nothing regarding any closure, but signs were in place by Friday.
This was actually something that my out of state civil engineer parents were consistently talking about as we were driving from the front range to ridgeway and ouray areas.

The shear amount of daytime road closures on major thoroughfares during the day for significant periods of time was really bizzare for them. In my home state (CA) work is often done at night when closures are necessary or at least some accommodations for one way traffic in each direction.

I’m not doubting the importance of any of this work and for some areas like the narrow section between the resovoir and montrose on 50 might need full closures, but these closures all over the state don’t make any practical sense for the communities near them.

Waved closures and full direction closures on I70, the bridge work on 285 on fairplay, 50 blasting, and now this pass are all really bizzare fusterclucks of long daytime closures and little communication soon beforehand contribute to a lot of issues for travelers and truckers in these areas.
I suspect you'll find the answer lies in $$$$.
100% it’s money. Night work is a lot more expensive to pull off.
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Re: Red Mountain Pass Closures

Post by dwoodward13 »

Edit: duplicate info removed
Last edited by dwoodward13 on Mon Jul 26, 2021 4:31 pm, edited 1 time in total.
marksilas
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Re: Red Mountain Pass Closures

Post by marksilas »

"Looks like they just pushed this back a few weeks so not much sway by the local communities. Midweek closures for 4 weeks (weekdays of August 9/16, Sept 13/20) from 830am to 530pm with a break from 12-1."

Looks like the same info. that was posted on here a few days ago.
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