Southwest Colorado STORM UPDATE:  8:45 AM Friday, January 22

US 160 WOLF CREEK PASS:  Closed Thursday night at 6 PM. East side opened 8:40 AM today/west side (west of ski area) remains closed – crews expertly cleared natural slides of about 8 ft deep by 150 ft long and another 16 ft deep by 100 feet long. They are now working on the west side. Crews on pass now assessing control work; slide paths ran even below the snow shed; much work to be done. Reopen time pending.

US 550 COAL BANK & MOLAS PASSES:  Closed Thursday night between 6:30 and 7 PM. Crewsin Silverton are hoping to do control work from Silverton this AM and, if they have the visibility they need, expect to open these lower passes. A reopen time still pending.

US 550 RED MTN PASS:  Closed Thursday night at 5 PM. Right now, crews do not plan to work to open this pass – must concentrate efforts on passes below Silverton. Do not anticipate any re-open of this pass today.

SH 145 LIZARD HEAD PASS:  Closed Thursday night at 8:30 PM; crews are out this morning getting to work on avalanche control; re-open is expected but no time has been estimated.

SH 17 Cumbres/La Manga passes south of Antonito (and Alamosa):  Closed last night; working to re-open today

OTHER AREA HIGHWAYS:  Storm is bringing heavy accumulations to other SW highways including US 491 and SH 90-US 491 did close on the Utah side (they don’t have OUR expertise!) but they opened up around 8:15 this morning.

(AS ALWAYS, PLEASE CONTINUE TO CHECK WWW.COTRIP.ORG<http://WWW.COTRIP.ORG> – OUR COLORADO TRAFFIC  MANAGEMENT CENTER STAFF MANS THE CONTROL ROOM 24-7 AND WILL UPDATE
THE WEB SITE AND PHONE LINES AS NEW INFORMATION COMES IN. THANK YOU!)