{"id":119473,"date":"2014-06-19T22:00:31","date_gmt":"2014-06-20T04:00:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/drivers-slow-down-for-the-bird\/"},"modified":"2014-06-19T22:00:31","modified_gmt":"2014-06-20T04:00:31","slug":"drivers-slow-down-for-the-bird","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/drivers-slow-down-for-the-bird\/","title":{"rendered":"Drivers: Slow down for the bird"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\"Photo
Photo courtesy US Fish and Wildlife<br><br>CDOT adjusted the construction schedule on U.S. 145 to protect the endangered Southwestern willow flycatcher.<\/span>du1-i-syn<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

Accommodating for an endangered bird is the reason for mysterious gap in the construction schedule on Highway 145.<\/p>\n

Timing for the project was adjusted to limit disruption of nesting habits of the Southwestern willow flycatcher, said CDOT representative Nancy Shank.<\/p>\n

\u201cInitial roughing of the road needed to take place before the bird arrives in the area,\u201d she said. \u201cThat is why there is a delay between the first phase and actual paving.\u201d<\/p>\n

People have questioned why there\u2019s a construction zone between Cortez and Dolores with a 40 mph speed zone even though no apparent work is being done.<\/p>\n

CDOT\u2019s environmental officials required the altered timing of the project, Shank said, and she asked that the public be patient.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe road has been roughed up pretty good, and it is required to have a lower speed limit for public safety. Motorcycles especially need to use caution,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Paving begins July 21, at the Colorado 145 bridge in Dolores and moves south in 2-mile sections. It\u2019s scheduled to be done in August.<\/p>\n

Shank said be prepared for delays, slow going, and alternating traffic during the paving process. As for the bird disruption, \u201cthat is part of the process.\u201d<\/p>\n

Since 1995, the Southwestern willow flycatcher has been listed as endangered, meaning extinction is imminent.<\/p>\n

The bird is down to an estimated 900 to 1,300 breeding pairs across the Southwest. Its range includes Arizona, New Mexico, southern Utah, and extreme Southwest Colorado.<\/p>\n

After migrating to Central America for the winter, the small bird returns to the Southwest in spring to breed and raise young in willows, shrubs and small trees.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Highway construction altered for flycatcher<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":119474,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5736,5735],"tags":[13],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-119473","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-local-news","category-news","tag-frontpage-lead"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/119473","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=119473"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/119473\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/119474"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=119473"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=119473"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=119473"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=119473"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}