by Dan Bereck » Mon Mar 18, 2019 11:09 am
Beginning in the summer of 2020 through the fall of 2021, Route 50, 30 miles east of Montrose and 33 miles west of Gunnison, will be undergoing a major road re-construction project, which will close the highway for days at a time and bring traffic to a crawl when open. This construction is in the Alpine Plateau Road area off of Rt 50. Detours will be very long and time consuming. This work was schedule to begin in the summer of 2019 but it has been postponed until the summer of 2020. Additional information can be obtained by goggling, “Little Blue Creek Canyon construction”. Mountaineers need to plan according since this road closure and delay may impact desired plans. Rt 149 to Lake City, off of Rt 50, west of Gunnison, should not be impacted for drivers coming from the east. Drivers coming from the west will be impacted. For Front Range mountaineers desiring to access peaks south of Montrose, off of Rt 550, from Ridgway to near Durango, I-70 may be a better route than Rt 285 and Rt 50, which will be impacted. Durango access via Rt 285 and Rt 160 should also be fine for Front Range drivers. Mountaineers from Montrose to Silverton and west will be impacted greatly by this construction when accessing peaks in the middle to east San Juan Mountains. The road construction does not begin until 2020 so plan your 2019 plans accordingly.