The Colorado Department of Transportation will replace a guardrail on U.S. Highway 550 at Cascade Curve to help improve safety along that stretch of road.
The guardrail location is about 2 miles north of Purgatory, an area where two semitrailers have crashed since April, according to CDOT.
Those semitrailers were traveling south on U.S. 550 when they “hit the existing concrete barriers and went over the north-facing embankment into Cascade Creek,” CDOT spokeswoman Adair Christensen said in an email to the Durango Herald.
“Safety improvements for this dangerous hairpin curve have been in the works as far as three years back,” she said.
The existing guardrail will be replaced with a larger permanent concrete barrier, which also will wrap around onto U.S. Forest Service Road 783.
“This new permanent barrier design is anchored into the ground below and is intended to mitigate the chances of vehicles leaving the highway in the case of a crash,” Christensen said.
Christensen said the U.S. 550 guardrail project will be similar to the “more fortified barrier design” CDOT built in 2018 on the west side of Wolf Creek Pass near the scenic overlook.
“Motorists tend to let their guard down and speed up, not expecting a dangerous hairpin curve ahead. This new barrier should withstand crashes better than the existing barrier and guardrail, which we’ve had to fix or replace quite frequently over the years,” she said.
Roadwork will begin Tuesday, and will continue weekdays from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. The project is expected to wrap up by early November, Christensen said.
Travel between Durango and Silverton could be delayed for up to 15 minutes at the portable traffic signals near the work area.
mhollinshead@durangoherald.com
