Motorists traveling on U.S. Highway 160 between Bayfield and Yellow Jacket Creek can expect traffic slowdowns over the next few weeks.
Colorado Department of Transportation crews will be putting in chip seals between mile posts 102 and 118, beginning Monday near Yellow Jacket Creek and then gradually proceeding west toward the Bayfield area.
Crews will work on 2 miles of road per day and are expected to reach the Bayfield area as early as Aug. 26, said CDOT spokeswoman Adair Christensen. Overall, the project is slated be completed in the next two or three weeks, depending on weather, Christensen said.
Construction hours will be from 6 a.m. to 9 p.m. Monday through Friday, in which sections of Highway 160 will be reduced to one lane each direction in 2-mile increments every day. The speed limit will be reduced to 40 mph in those work zones.
Christensen said that stretch of Highway 160 is prone to potholes and cracks forming because it is frequently traveled and in a higher elevation. On top of that, it is in area where moisture and colder conditions have a greater impact on the road.
“The colder weather conditions, the wetter weather conditions cause potholes to form more frequently,” she said. “… When cracks start to form in the highway, water can get down in those cracks. And when weather temperatures change, those cracks expand … and eventually form larger potholes. It doesn’t help with all the traffic driving over it also causing further damage.”
Chip sealing is essentially an added layer of tar and gravel on the highway to fill existing cracks and keep larger potholes from forming, Christensen said.
“We are expanding the life span of that highway for several more years,” she said.
Christensen said it is “imperative” that drivers going between Bayfield and Yellow Jacket Creek slow down and be courteous in those chip sealing zones, adding they should keep their distance from other vehicles and wait until they’re out of the zones before passing them on the highway.
“A slower speed will help save your windshield from getting cracked,” Christensen said.
Christensen suggests drivers heading toward the construction area over the next few weeks use Colorado Highways 172 and 151 instead.
mhollinshead@durangoherald.com
