{"id":39138,"date":"2022-08-02T01:39:46","date_gmt":"2022-08-02T07:39:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/la-plata-county-sheriff-says-road-closures-also-apply-to-bicyclists\/"},"modified":"2026-03-31T02:48:10","modified_gmt":"2026-03-31T08:48:10","slug":"la-plata-county-sheriff-says-road-closures-also-apply-to-bicyclists","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/la-plata-county-sheriff-says-road-closures-also-apply-to-bicyclists\/","title":{"rendered":"La Plata County sheriff says road closures also apply to bicyclists"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\"A
A street sweeper works Monday to clear debris from East Animas Road (County Road 250), which flooded Saturday night during a heavy rainstorm north of Durango. (Shane Benjamin\/Durango Herald)<\/span>cca<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

La Plata County Sheriff Sean Smith watched in disbelief Sunday as bicyclists blew through \u201croad closed\u201d signs and pedaled through a flooded-out section of road north of Durango.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was shocked as I stood there for the first few minutes \u2013 the complete disregard for all of it,\u201d Smith said Monday. \u201cThe road and bridge guys told me, \u2018It\u2019s been a challenge for us to even do our job because they\u2019re just riding through and they don\u2019t care.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

Isolated rain showers, which can produce an inch of rain per hour, have caused several mudslides across La Plata County. One of those slides occurred Saturday night in the Animas Valley north of Durango. The deluge sent a cascade of mud and debris down a mountainside and flooded the 2700 block of East Animas Road (County Road 250).<\/p>\n

Road crews were cleaning the mess Sunday morning.<\/p>\n

Smith stopped by to see how things were going. He was out of uniform \u2013 wearing shorts, T-shirt and flip-flops. That is when he saw bikers disregard \u201croad closed\u201d signs and push their way through the work zone.<\/p>\n

Road crews told the sheriff it had been a problem all morning. A backhoe and a street sweeper were having to dodge bikers, he said, \u201cbecause none of them are paying attention.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd I witnessed it several times,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Signs were posted on the north and south ends of East Animas Road, giving bikers and drivers ample warning the road was closed, Smith said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey (cyclists) rode right up to barricades where cars turned around and just went straight through,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

In one instance, a woman in a car turned around at the work zone. But as she was turning, a bicyclist blew through the work zone, prompting her to ask, \u201cHow come it doesn\u2019t pertain to bicyclists?\u201d Smith said.<\/p>\n

Smith grew frustrated and had seen enough. He called for a deputy to patrol the area so road crews could complete their job in a safe work zone. But he said that took resources away from other parts of the county.<\/p>\n

He reminded bicyclists that respect goes both ways.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re trying to always get the message out that we need to be respectful and share the roadways, and bicyclists want that message delivered to the motorists all the time,\u201d Smith said. \u201cBut when there\u2019s a road blockage and the bicyclists think, \u2018Well, hey, doesn\u2019t pertain to me, just cars.\u2019 That\u2019s not appropriate either. So we all have to follow the same rules and respect each other \u2013 that\u2019s what it comes down to.\u201d<\/p>\n

He said bicyclists must obey road closures, for their own safety and for the safety of road crews.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen the road\u2019s closed, please acknowledge it,\u201d he said. \u201c\u2026 It\u2019s not for them to judge.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"A
A cyclist pedals through a section of East Animas Road (County Road 250) after it reopened Monday. A mudslide closed the road Sunday, but La Plata County Sheriff Sean Smith said that didn\u2019t deter several bicyclists from pedaling through the work zone. (Shane Benjamin\/Durango Herald)<\/span>cca<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

The 2700 block of East Animas Road is especially problematic during heavy rainstorms. In fact, a boulder about the size of a house sits on the mountainside that will one day come crashing down, Smith said.<\/p>\n

The rains have caused flooding in other places, including Bayfield, La Posta Road (County Road 213) and on U.S. Highway 550 about 2 miles north of the New Mexico line, where about 2 feet of water collected Saturday night, he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat created some challenges, because cars were approaching it at highway speed \u2013 65 mph in that area \u2013 and encountering this 2-foot-deep section of water,\u201d Smith said.<\/p>\n

On the plus side, the rains haven\u2019t caused any major flooding below wildfire scars, including the 416 Fire north of Durango, he said. That\u2019s thanks, in part, to runoff mitigation work, he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cPeople just need to be cognizant that as this moisture continues, when there\u2019s a heavy downpour in an area, it can have negative effects,\u201d he said. \u201cAny system can get overwhelmed with the right amount of rainfall.\u201d<\/p>\n

shane@durangoherald.com<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

watched as cyclists rode through work zone<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":39139,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[1920,657,28,1901,1613,414],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-39138","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-animas-valley","tag-cycling","tag-headlines","tag-la-plata-county-sheriff","tag-natural-disasters","tag-weather"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39138","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=39138"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39138\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":84231,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39138\/revisions\/84231"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/39139"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=39138"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=39138"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=39138"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=39138"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}