Bridge Project to Close Highway 160 This Week

BACA COUNTY – U.S. 160 will be detoured later this week for bridge removal and culvert installation at Lone Rock Draw (picture attached), about four miles southwest of Pritchett.

The closure is expected to begin at 6 a.m. on Thursday, December 13. Traffic will be detoured four miles around the closure via county roads BB, 9, and Z, adding an extra 10 to 15 minutes of travel time. A 25 mph speed limit is posted and vehicles wider than 12 feet will not be allowed to use the detour.

Highway 160 is scheduled to reopen to through traffic on Sunday evening, December 16. A signal then will alternate eastbound and westbound traffic through the work zone over the new crossing. Traffic stops of approximately two minutes should be expected.

Bridge and guardrail will be installed during the week of December 17, allowing the highway to go back to two lanes and removal of the traffic signal on Thursday, December 20.

Replacing the structure at Lone Rock Draw (built 1936) is part of the Colorado Department of Transportation’s three-bridge replacement project. It includes replacing the bridge at North Fork Sand Arroyo (built 1935) with a concrete box culvert, 11 miles west of Pritchett, and rehabilitating the bridge at Cat Creek (built 1939), about three miles west of U.S. 287, near Springfield.

American Civil Constructors, Inc. of Littleton, Colo. is the project’s prime contractor.

FASTER – Funding Advancements for Surface Transportation and Economic Recovery – is fully funding the $2.2 million project. Financed by vehicle registration fees, FASTER established a Statewide Bridge Enterprise, funding the maintenance and repair of Colorado’s most urgent structurally-deficient and functionally-obsolete bridges. More information is available at: www.coloradodot.info/programs/BridgeEnterprise

Traffic information about this or other CDOT projects is on the cotrip.org website, by calling 511 or via subscription e-mail. To subscribe, please visit www.coloradodot.info and click on the cell-phone icon in the upper right-hand corner. The link takes you to a list of items you can subscribe to, including Southeast Colorado (Everything East of I-25 and South of I-70).