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Residents Call CDOT Project 'Bridge To Nowhere'

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May 11, 2009 7:37 am US/Mountain

Residents Call CDOT Project 'Bridge To Nowhere'

3-Lane Bridge In Southwest Colorado Locked In Legal Fight

DURANGO, Colo. (AP) ― A proposed road connecting a three-lane highway bridge to U.S. 550 in La Plata County is locked in a legal battle.

Residents near the bridge, which is part of a $34 million state highway project, have dubbed it a multimillion dollar "bridge to nowhere." A spokesman for U.S. Rep. John Salazar said last week the congressman has asked Colorado Department of Transportation officials for an explanation.

CDOT officials said the bridge spanning U.S. 160 south of Durango will eventually connect to a road.

Ranch owner Chris Webb opposes having the proposed highway run through his land.

The bridge is part of a realignment of U.S. 550 and is being built to accommodate future growth in the Grandview area between Durango and Bayfield.

"The congressman is well aware of the situation and is very concerned," Salazar's spokesman Eric Wortman told the Durango Herald Thursday. "There's clearly something going on."

Wortman said the bridge has been a consistent constituent complaint.

Approved by the Federal Highway Administration in 2006, the overpass and three other bridges, retaining walls and highway widening are part of a $455 million CDOT project to improve 16.2 miles of U.S. 160 between Durango and Bayfield.

Webb owns the land south of the bridge, the planned route for the U.S. 550 connection.

"I don't think any of us ever thought this darned thing would get built," Brett D'Spain, a Durango planning consultant hired by Webb told The Denver Post.

D'Spain is working to come up with alternatives for a connecting route.

"It is so farfetched and so unneeded at this time. I think they thought, 'If we get money to start building this thing it will have to be completed.' "

Residents say the steel girders and concrete spanning U.S. 160 look out of place in its rural setting next to a gravel pit.

"I can understand how people would perceive it that way," said Richard Reynolds, director of CDOT's Region 5, which covers southwest Colorado.

CDOT officials are using $4 million in stimulus money to build an off ramp from the bridge while a two-year study will look at alternative routes, The Denver Post reported.

(© 2009 The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.)

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