Options limited on dealing with U.S. 24, Ute Pass closures

Many drivers and residents along U.S. 24’s Ute Pass in El Paso County said they’re tired of being trapped by long highway closures that occasionally happen.

Until recently, most closures were for safety reasons resulting from fires, floods, crashes and weather. But last Sunday, a standoff and a brief snowstorm forced authorities to close the pass for more than three hours.

Critics have sought the construction of another route through the pass that can be used in an emergency when U.S. 24 is closed. Others suggest that an existing dirt road, Rampart Range Road, be used as a detour from Garden of the Gods to Teller County near Woodland Park.

When U.S. 24 is closed, drivers face three-hour detours via U.S. 50 in Pueblo and Interstate 70 in Denver.

Rob MacDonald, executive director of the Pikes Peak Area Council of Governments, said planners have talked about an alternate pass road since the 1970s.

“But we don’t have any long-range plans for one,” he said. “Constructing another pass through the mountains would be too expensive and we have other priorities that are more important.”

Jacqueline Kirby of the El Paso County Sheriff’s Office said traffic control is the best way to manage highway closures. Yet after receiving public criticism about how Sunday’s closure was handled, she said the office learned a lesson.

“Probably communicating better, finding more ways that we can get the word out,” she said. “But I believe that we did use every resource we had available to us.”

Kirby said there is a turnaround area that drivers could have used, but traffic congestion was such that drivers couldn’t see or reach the area.

“I know people were upset and frustrated,” she said. “I did walk down the highway and tried to alert as many drivers as I could.”

Fortunately, highway closures don’t happen often. But for some critics, closures happen too often.