Rapid snowmelt from Colorado’s Sawatch and Mosquito mountains filled South Platte River tributaries at such high levels that state crews closed U.S. 285 for fear that old wooden bridges would collapse.
Thousands of drivers were routed along a 30-mile detour over the weekend as Colorado Department of Transportation officials closed a bridge about 10 miles south of Fairplay.
The high water gushing though the middle fork of the South Platte, scouring against 1930s-era bridge structures, had reached a level 5½ feet below the roadway, CDOT supervisor Jake Allen said Sunday evening.
“We’re trying to protect the traveling public. We understand it’s an inconvenience,” he said. “The bridge vibrations from the traffic would destroy that bridge with that much water underneath it. Scouring is the No. 1 cause of bridge failure.”
High snowmelt waters beneath a second bridge to the north was 4 inches from a shutdown point and rising.
