Repairs on the road to the 14,266-foot summit of Mount Blue Sky are proceeding on schedule, according to the company that is doing the work, and North America’s highest paved highway is expected to reopen next spring on or around Memorial Day, its traditional seasonal reopening.
Repair work began last fall after the road’s traditional Labor Day closure on a 0.7-mile section at 13,000 feet near Summit Lake. Crews were able to work into early November before the project had to be halted for winter. They removed old asphalt, improved the soil layer beneath the asphalt, moved and replaced culverts, improved drainage, completed a base layer on the road, installed headwalls and began rock embankment work.
Finishing the project required keeping the road closed this summer from Echo Lake to the summit, officials said. Construction resumed just this week.
“Siete Inc., the contractor on this project, is really confident that moving into this (construction) season, we will complete the work that we have lined out in our schedule,” said Tracy Trulove, the public information manager on the project. “There was so much good work accomplished in the fall, we don’t believe this would go past the intended timeframe, meaning the work would be finished before the winter shutdown.”
That would allow the Colorado Department of Transportation to conduct snow removal operations next spring, as usual, and get the road open for Memorial Day tourists in the traditional timeframe.
“We were waiting on conditions to get started (this summer),” said Michelle Peulen, the construction company’s vice president for public relations. “We fully anticipate, barring any significant weather impacts, to be complete this season.”
Fourteener peakbaggers are still able to hike from Echo Lake to the summit via the Chicago Lakes, but the trek involves 17 miles of hiking with 5,600 feet of climbing. When the road is open, it’s a 5.5-mile round-trip hike from Summit Lake with a 2,000-foot elevation gain.
Trulove said the construction company is working closely with the Evergreen-based Alpine Rescue Team, the search-and-rescue group that covers Mount Blue Sky, Grays and Torreys peaks and other hiking trails in Clear Creek, Gilpin and Jefferson counties.
“They still are getting calls,” Trulove said.
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