BLUE MESA RESERVOIR — Crews will soon begin bolting four 20-foot-long plates of steel to a U.S. 50 bridge over the Blue Mesa Reservoir with the goal of finishing critical repairs by July 4 to allow emergency vehicles and passenger cars across the bridge on an intermittent basis.
The first phase of repairs will involve attaching the plates of steel to the central span of the bridge, where inspection crews found a four-inch crack in structural steel, Colorado Department of Transportation officials said Tuesday during the first media tour of the bridge since its sudden shutdown April 18.
If construction goes as planned, traffic will be allowed across the bridge two times a day in each direction, said Jason Smith, a regional transportation director for CDOT.
“Our goal ultimately from day one was getting emergency services across the structure because we realized that communities, especially in Gunnison, needed emergency services in Montrose,” Smith said.
To prepare for the critical repairs, teams removed asphalt from the bridge to allow more weight, from equipment and crews, to be allowed on the bridge. The four steel plates arrived Saturday and more are in transit, he said.
On Tuesday, amid gusty winds, construction crews worked inside a bright yellow snooper truck over the side of the bridge to continue removing the paint, by sandblasting, to reach the bare metal. Engineers used ultrasonic testing in 118 areas to determine the integrity of the bridge and identify which parts needed repairs.
Crews will have to carefully lower the plates, which weigh the equivalent of two pickup trucks, over the edge, before lifting them to the bottom of the bridge and bolting them in place.
“These plates are pretty massive and will be very difficult to lift over the edge, bring up underneath and bolt into place,” program engineer Rob Beck said.
Over the course of months, crews will drill hundreds of bolts, each weighing about five pounds, into the bridge, he said.
“There will be a one-for-one replacement. You pull one out, you put one in, pull one out, put one in,” Beck said. “We can’t pull them all out at once or we lose the structural integrity of the plate.”
Smith said CDOT is still working to calculate how many cars the bridge will be able to allow after critical repairs are complete.
“It is very much a balancing act,” he said.
Once critical repairs are complete, crews will then address less critical issues found on the bridge, to ensure the longevity of the bridge, Smith said, adding that CDOT hopes to finish by the end of October before weather complicates the work.
About 100 people are on site to repair the bridge 24/7, working in shifts, he said.
Gunnison County Commissioner Laura Puckett Daniels said the anticipated July 4 opening will help alleviate some stress and anxiety for locals and business owners in the area, especially those working in the tourism industry.
“We have such a huge exchange of commerce, medicine and goods between Gunnison and Montrose. So being cut off there, it’s been really stressful,” she said.
Since the closure, tourism-based businesses, like campgrounds, have taken a hit with fewer people traveling to the area and canceling their reservations.
“It’s been hard to get the word out to folks that these businesses are open and you can access them,” Puckett Daniels said.
Still, she said she is impressed by the grit shown by people impacted by the closure.
“There’s been an amazing resilience, watching people step into the gap and help each other — whether it was like shuttling construction workers across Blue Mesa or shuttling students across Blue Mesa or a family who got certified by the school district to be able to drive kids to school, or the EMS system pivoting really quickly and finding treatments for folks in a whole other part of the state,” Puckett Daniels said.
“I’ve been really impressed by how everybody’s put their shoulder to the wheel and helped and pushed in the same direction.”