High-mountain unpaved road provides partial solution to 354-mile detour in Colorado

A partial solution has been found for a massive six-hour 354-mile detour that's in place for those traveling between Montrose and Gunnison due to a cracked bridge along US Highway 50.

According to the Gunnison County Sheriff's Office, County Road 26 will be open twice a day as of April 22 for critical local travel. The travel along this route will be managed through the use of pilot vehicles, which will be used to lead passenger vehicles along the road.

The need for a pilot vehicle and strict timed-access is due to County Road 26 being a high-mountain unpaved road that's not intended for high volumes of traffic. Colorado Department of Transportation stressed that the road will only be open for local essential travel, with any commercial vehicle exceeding a 16,001 gross vehicle weight rating prohibited.

As far as timing goes, the road will be open from 6 to 6:30 a.m. and 6 to 6:30 p.m. for westbound travel and 7 to 7:30 a.m. and 7 to 7:30 p.m. for eastbound travel.

Other detours for non-essential local travel and those traveling outside of the permitted times involved traveling either I-70 or US 160 between the destinations .

There's still no news on when the bridge on US 50 will be reopened.

Read more about this closure and detour here .

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