CDOT Upgrades Critical Culverts on SH 141 in San Miguel County
SAN MIGUEL COUNTY – The Colorado Department of Transportation has a project underway to improve the condition of critical drainage culverts along SH 141.
The work involves lining—with reinforcing plastic pipe—four existing culverts at the following locations south of Naturita (Naturita lies at Mile Point 60): MP 54.91, MP 44.89, MP 43.49 and MP 41.51. During the project, crews will also be cleaning out any of the culverts that contain debrief as a result of recent rain events.
The estimated total project cost is $2 million (design through construction) and American West Construction is the project contractor.
The average daily traffic count on this stretch of roadway is about 580 vehicles a day (higher in the summer, lower in the winter). The impacts to travelers should this highway be closed due to culvert failure (including mud slides or flooding incidents), would be significant, as those located south of the work zones would have to travel to SH 145 and Lizard Head Pass to get to Naturita and places north. A 50-mile trip from Egnar north to Naturita, for example, would become a 159-mile trip using SH 145 if SH 141 was closed. The project will not only improve drainage through these under-highway culverts so they can better handle flooding events, but also improve the integrity of the roadway above.
TRAVEL IMPACTS: Motorists can expect some single-lane, alternating traffic, Monday through Friday and some Saturdays, from about 7 a.m. to 5 p.m. The work began on October 5 and will continue through March 2016, with a winter suspension.
PROJECT INFORMATION: For updates or to ask questions, the public may call the contractor’s project information line at (970) 471-5094. To sign up to receive project information and/or lane closure updates on state highways in the area of your choice, visit CDOT’s website at www.codot.gov and choose the envelope icon at the bottom of the page. Or, to see CDOT’s lane closure reports for projects statewide, visit www.codot.gov/travel/
