<body><div><figure><img src="https://img.particlenews.com/image.php?type=thumbnail_580x000&amp;url=48OzKc_1GxfmDmD00" alt="https://img.particlenews.com/image.php?url=48OzKc_1GxfmDmD00" width="1280" height="960" ><figcaption>Piedra River Bridge damage on Highway 160 between Pagosa Springs and Bayfield. Credit: CDOT</figcaption></figure>CDOT plans to have Wolf Creek Pass open to limited traffic by this weekend and Colorado 151 between Pagosa Springs and Bayfield taking traffic by Thanksgiving, state transportation officials reported Tuesday.Wolf Creek Pass has been closed the past 12 days, since a second round of heavy rainstorms caused severe rockslides and mudslides and washed out a portion of US Highway 160. The ski area had opened for Halloween and now the rush is on to get the road back open for travel and a Colorado ski season on track.“In some places we have six to eight feet of rocks, mud, debris that were on the highway that our crews have been working on getting rid of,” said Julie Constan, southwest regional director for the Colorado Department of Transportation. “Some of those locations are a couple hundred feet long,” she said. “Shoulder damage, we have some retaining walls up there that were damaged. We have places where guardrail is just kind of hanging in thin air and a lot of culverts were plugged up and damaged as well, along with our fiber that goes over Wolf Creek Pass.”<figure><img src="https://img.particlenews.com/image.php?type=thumbnail_580x000&amp;url=2KBJJ2_1GxfmDmD00" alt="https://img.particlenews.com/image.php?url=2KBJJ2_1GxfmDmD00" width="1024" height="721" ><figcaption>A portion of CO 151 between Pagosa Springs and Ignacio destroyed by flood. Credit: CDOT</figcaption></figure>Colorado has freed up $20 million in state transportation contingency funds and received another $6.5 million in Federal Highway Administration emergency relief money to be able to address the urgent highway repairs, said CDOT Executive Director Shoshana Lew.“There is the kind of immediate question of what repairs are needed to get the roads open by winter. That is our first priority and our top priority and what the first dollars are going into,” said Lew.The town of Pagosa Springs has been the hardest hit by the two storms, the first of which socked the region Oct. 22, and saw itself cut off in the second storm when Highway 151 around Chimney Rock washed out over a three-mile stretch and Piedra River Bridge on US 160 collapsed. CDOT is rushing to get the state highway open to limited traffic by Thanksgiving, officials said.“They’re working through those in tandem, all with 11 contractors working at 15 different sites across our areas. So really a lot of hands on deck, but they are, again, seeing massive progress and the ability to get those roads open in some configuration before the holidays,” Constan said.A third extended closure is on US 160 where the Piedra River Bridge between Pagosa Springs and Durango collapsed. CDOT is working on a temporary bridge to be installed by January and has created a detour for residents in the area.Traveling Wolf Creek, motorists can expect to see portions of the pass where it’s one lane with traffic signals altering. The east side of Wolf Creek near South Fork saw four feet of water on the roadway surface on one point, and Jackson Mountain Slope, which is a slow landslide on the pass, has seen significant movement from the rains, CDOT officials said.“It’s been an awe-inspiring situation to see our rivers flowing with this much water, water that we haven’t seen in a really long time, if ever,” said Constan. “It’s been heartbreaking too, though, to see the damage that’s been happening along the highways as well as to all the personal properties and hearing the stories about residents completely cut off. That part of it and the devastation and destruction has definitely been hard to watch. But we do have a really good team on the CDOT side as well as all of our local agencies.”</div></body>

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CDOT plans to have Wolf Creek Pass open to limited traffic by this weekend and Colorado 151 between Pagosa Springs and Bayfield taking traffic by Thanksgiving, state transportation officials reported Tuesday. Wolf Creek Pass has been closed the past 12 days, since a second round of heavy rainstorms caused severe...

CDOT working to have Wolf Creek Pass open this weekend

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CDOT plans to have Wolf Creek Pass open to limited traffic by this weekend and Colorado 151 between Pagosa Springs and Bayfield taking traffic by Thanksgiv

CDOT working to have Wolf Creek Pass open this weekend

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