Silverton Mulls Isolation by 2021

(Red Mountain) The county seat and acknowledged Shangri-La of of San Juan County may be inaccessible sooner than state engineers had predicted, according to an ongoing study that examines alternative transport in tactical spots. Of course most of the highway from Ouray is fine, as is the continuance of Highway 550 to Durango. The bugaboos are the several spots on Otto Mears’ old toll road that are not up to snuff.
“Crazy as it may seem if there is just one impassable spot the whole road closes down,” said a top C-DOT spokesperson.
The two most serious hazards appear to be Ruby Wall and the top of the climb out of Chattanooga Gulch where bits of asphalt dangle in the sky and rocks the size of your head sit as land mines waiting to be ignited by a hapless motorist or even a bumbling mountain goat.
Unlike flat environs there is no space too work with and no way to keep the road from falling away.
“Ruby Wall is disintegrating in the shadow of massive vertical rock while the Chattanooga Gulch drop is getting closer by every rock that falls,” continued the source. “Back in January I met a semi hanging out over onto my side of the road at the top where the road whittles away to nothing. . We almost collided in the ice.”
It is these two sites that have been identified as posing the highest immediate danger to travelers. Civil engineers, tired of drawing up temporary fixes for the roadways are already busy developing alternative solutions that some say are innovative beyond belief and others say lack ingenuity and fail to see the big picture.
Proposed detours include running traffic up above Ruby Wall and far below the well substantiated Chattanooga drop off. Other maps see a major traffic shift at the former Red Mountain site that traverses up and over Corkscrew Pass into Silverton. This plan would require a flattening out of parts of Corkscrew and the widening of existing roads from Gladstone to Silverton. Paving Cinnamon Pass has been discussed but is not a serious consideration at the present time according to engineers here.
A sub-plan that calls for the flooding of Animas Forks followed by air strikes on the designated trouble spots have been discarded due to the drought and county noise ordinances. The river bottom, often a logical choice of flatlanders, is not functional as a byway after even a slight snowstorm since the snow stays around and the ice forming on the sides of the canyon take visibility down to nothing.
In a grab bag with all the other answers is a plan calling for Silverton to relocate. This unraveling retort continues suggesting that Ouray move too. Realistically we don’t expect a geographic approach to be taken seriously by the stubborn populations in these burgs.
Tipping his hat to gravity the source told reporters that the only intelligent plan to to construct a gondola system that covers present and potential disaster areas.
“We can’t very well ferry anyone across and there are no good spots to build a heliport in that country,” he continued. I don’t like the math involved with multiple helicopter trips through those tight spaces at night or in bad weather either.”
Road warriors project that experimental gondola rides will commence in 2014.
“It’s either that of they roll up the sidewalks on Greene Street for good.”
For related data please turn to
“Newspaper Inundated with Angry Letters from Silverton”
on Page 155