CR 26 (Lake City Cutoff) Detour Route
Beginning Monday, April 22, 2024, the County Road 26 bypass will open as a detour route two times per day in each direction for critical local public travel. To open this as a viable detour, traffic will need to be managed through the use of pilot vehicles. CR 26 (aka Lake City Cutoff) is a high mountain native surface road that is not built to maintain existing US 50 traffic levels. The County and State are working to improve the road in case of a prolonged bridge closure.
Piloted release times will be:
6:00 to 6:30 a.m. for westbound travel beginning at CO149 and CR26.
7:00 to 7:30 a.m. for eastbound travel beginning at US50 and CR26.
6:00 to 6:30 p.m. for westbound travel beginning at CO149 and CR26.
7:00 to 7:30 p.m. for eastbound travel beginning at US50 and CR26.
In order to maintain this route, crews will perform repairs to CR 26 and improve the road, so no other public travel will be allowed outside of these times.
No trailers of any type will be allowed. The detour will not be open to commercial vehicles more than 16,000 GVWR (Gross Vehicle Weight Rating). Prohibited vehicles will need to use detours on Interstate 70 or Colorado Highway 160 to travel between Gunnison and Montrose.
Resources for information and updates:
Call (970) 648-4423 and leave a voice mail for an immediate call back. You can email questions to us50bridge@gmail.com. Website resource – https://www.gunnisoncounty.org/1078/Hwy-50-Bridge-Closure.
To sign up for text and or email updates on all Gunnison County roadwork messaging, please visit https://www.gunnisoncounty.org/list.aspx to select what updates you’d like to start receiving.