Posted on 05/10/2009 5:42:59 PM PDT by george76
A three-lane bridge, envisioned as the centerpiece of a $54 million highway project, is sitting between a cow pasture and a mesa as the state struggles to get rights of way to connect it to actual roads.
Residents here, who are waging a war of words in local letters to the editor, call it the "Bridge to Nowhere."
"We all have to wonder why they did this like this," said Doug Ervin, whose home lies in sight of the bridge to the north. "There is a lot of taxpayer money at risk here."
Under the Colorado Department of Transportation's preferred plan for the realignment, the new road south of U.S. 160 would cut deep into the side of a steep mesa and curve across pasture lands on one of the oldest ranches in the southwest.
That route is now choked off in legal and historical challenges.
CDOT's study overlooked archaeological sites dating back to 1000 BC that are in the path of the proposed road.
Those findings have kicked off a federal assessment that may result in the land and old ranch buildings receiving an historic designation — a ruling that would dry up any federal funds if state highway officials don't make every attempt to find an alternate route.
The ranch's owner is also claiming CDOT acted fraudulently in condemning a portion of his land.
He is also irked the route was changed to an even more damaging location after, he said, highway planners failed to take a gas well into account. The well would have been in the middle of the road. How it was missed is unclear .
Steve Parker, a highway commissioner ... said that he doesn't care if folks skateboard on an empty bridge over the next 10 years until matters are settled
(Excerpt) Read more at denverpost.com ...
I wonder if one can fish off the bridge?
Richard Reynolds, the Durango-based director of CDOT’s Region 5, said Salazar perhaps did not understand CDOT’s schedule of construction...
Salazar’s office wants to work constructively with CDOT to fix the problem. And though CDOT says it may take as long as two years to determine which route Highway 550 will take to connect with the highway in Grandview, the congressman said he is not willing to wait that long for answers
http://durangoherald.com/sections/News/2009/05/10/550_bridge_a_concern_to_Salazar/
skateboard on an empty bridge
Knock it down!
—and they’ll soon be managing Chrysler and GM——along with Amtrack.
I see my favorite mountains! The LA PLATAS! I wish I was there right now!
I wonder if the bridge was built to enrich some speculator/developer who has now either 1) made his profit or 2) gone belly up. That would explain why no one is in a hurry at this point to actually make use of the bridge.
I always wondered where Bill Clinton’s Bridge
to the 21st Century was.
I have driven under this thing. It is hideous enough just standing there uncompleted. Durango is a tourist town, and most of the tourists will be driving under this overpass. If it takes 10 to finish this will be an incredible eyesore.
I see my favorite mountains! The LA PLATAS! I wish I was there right now!
______________________________________
I live in Durango so I’ll enjoy them for you. Come and visit.
Something this incompetent could only have come from a dhimmicrat. Who done it??
I don't remember 160 nor 550 being at all busy. What the heck are they doing trashing yet more of some of the prettiest natural scenery in the country?
Now to complete that picture, you have to imagine a two lane highway going left to right underneath that bridge, a highway that is guiding traffic to and from actual places.
My son was telling me about something like this last year,there was a landowner who agreed to a price and then jacked it up astronomically and someone got PO’d and decided to condemn the land, I wonder if this is the one.
Of course he doesn't care. It wasn't HIS money that was spent to build it!
But look at how efficiently they run the Post Office!!!!!
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