{"id":43345,"date":"2021-12-09T19:21:34","date_gmt":"2021-12-10T02:21:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/construction-on-u-s-highway-160-wildlife-crossing-to-stop-for-winter\/"},"modified":"2026-03-31T03:13:04","modified_gmt":"2026-03-31T09:13:04","slug":"construction-on-u-s-highway-160-wildlife-crossing-to-stop-for-winter","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/construction-on-u-s-highway-160-wildlife-crossing-to-stop-for-winter\/","title":{"rendered":"Construction on U.S. Highway 160 wildlife crossing to stop for winter"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\"The
The Colorado Department of Transportation and contractor Ralph L. Wadsworth Construction Co. will stop work on the U.S. Highway 160 wildlife crossing on Dec. 17 ahead of winter. The project, which began in March and was scheduled for completion in November 2021, will restart in April. (Durango Herald file)<\/span>du1-i-syn<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

Construction on the wildlife crossing along U.S. Highway 160 between Bayfield and Pagosa Springs will enter a second year.<\/p>\n

The Colorado Department of Transportation announced on Dec. 1 that work on the complex at the intersection of state Highway 151 will finish by mid-December and restart in April for the final steps of the project.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen we come back in the spring, we\u2019re going to be addressing the wildlife overpass,\u201d said CDOT spokeswoman Lisa Schwantes.<\/p>\n

Contractor Ralph L. Wadsworth Construction Co. and CDOT have installed the overpass, but crews need to construct the concrete sidewalls, or \u201cwing walls,\u201d and backfill and landscape the bridge before big game can cross.<\/p>\n

The project began in March and was scheduled for completion in November 2021, but ran into obstacles this fall that forced the delay.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe found that in one particular area the shale material that we had to dig into was much harder than we had anticipated. That has caused setbacks setting up those wing walls,\u201d Schwantes said.<\/p>\n

\"A
A wildlife overpass is being built on U.S. Highway 160 just east of the intersection with Colorado Highway 151 between Bayfield and Pagosa Springs. (Jerry McBride\/Durango Herald file)<\/span>cca<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"A
A wildlife underpass was installed on U.S. Highway 160 west of the intersection with Colorado Highway 151 between Bayfield and Pagosa Springs. (Jerry McBride\/Durango Herald file)<\/span>Jerry McBride<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

CDOT plans to start again in April, but that schedule remains flexible based on weather conditions.<\/p>\n

CDOT expects construction to last another four to six weeks, Schwantes said.<\/p>\n

Before the project shuts down on Dec.17, crews will complete much of the project\u2019s remaining road activity. Workers are finishing erosion control, stabilizing the overpass, and placing permanent signage and fencing ahead of next week\u2019s deadline.<\/p>\n

Crews are also reinstalling guardrails, removing cones and other construction equipment, and placing a temporary deer fence to block animals from entering the road at the overpass.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re just going to clean (the wildlife crossing) up and button it up for the winter season so that it\u2019s a nice, clean stretch of highway with no obstructions,\u201d Schwantes said.<\/p>\n

Ahead of forecasted snow, crews were out working through Thursday. CDOT suspended operations for Friday, but will return on Monday for the final week of work this year, she said.<\/p>\n

Work completed before the winter break will allow construction crews to minimize any impacts to traffic next year.<\/p>\n

When construction restarts, the 2-mile stretch of highway will remain a work zone with reduced speeds, but stops like those seen this summer and fall will be minimal and periodic, Schwantes said.<\/p>\n

\"An
An artist\u2019s rendering of the U.S. Highway 160 wildlife crossing between Bayfield and Pagosa Springs. (Courtesy of Colorado Department of Transportation).<\/span>cca<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

CDOT and Ralph L. Wadsworth Construction Co. have finished the majority of the work on the sprawling infrastructure project, which includes an overpass 100 feet long and 20 feet tall, and an underpass 78 feet long and 13 feet high.<\/p>\n

In addition to the overpass and underpass, which are about a half mile apart, the crossing includes 8-foot-tall exclusion fences, earthen escape ramps and deer guards, a new left-turn acceleration lane at state Highway 151 and 2 miles of pavement resurfacing.<\/p>\n

Crews have completed the wildlife underpass, deer guards and fences. They have also finished the new acceleration lane, road widening, and surface repaving and repainting.<\/p>\n

Though work has been pushed back, the project\u2019s price tag of about $11 million remains unchanged, Schwantes said.<\/p>\n

The underpass is available for wildlife to use this winter.<\/p>\n

By next summer, drivers can expect to see elk and deer walking overhead.<\/p>\n

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

Project will shut down next week before restarting in April<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":43346,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[576,28,2344,1685,2591,259],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-43345","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-colorado-department-of-transportation","tag-headlines","tag-road-transport","tag-road-work-and-conditions","tag-transport","tag-transportation"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43345","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=43345"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43345\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":85666,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43345\/revisions\/85666"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/43346"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=43345"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=43345"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=43345"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=43345"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}