Drivers traveling a stretch of U.S. Highway 550 North on the south side of Durango, Colo. will soon see a new electronic board that will help alert drivers of closures and other warnings on the road.
Thursday, U.S. 550 North at mile marker 14 between County Roads 302 and 220 was closed for about an hour because the Colorado Department of Transportation (CDOT) installed the pole base and mast arm for the new variable message sign (VMS) boards part of the U.S. 550 connection project, said CDOT spokeswoman Lisa Schwantes to the Durango Herald.
The electronic sign board will be attached to the supports on the mast arm, over the northbound lane three miles south of the Grandview Interchange, she added.
The variable message signs, which are the electronic message boards motorists see while driving, are being installed to utilize fiber optic cables that are now available for use in certain areas of the state.
“We’ll be able to utilize that just in case traffic needs to be diverted onto an alternate route,” she said. “It’s far enough south that folks can choose an alternate route before getting to the interchange.”
The VMS board itself is expected to arrive for installation in the next few weeks, Schwantes said.
“It’s just part of enhancing our roadway system, and we do not have a VMS board that is northbound coming from the New Mexico state line…Now we will,” she said.
The realigned portion of U.S. 550 that connects with the Grandview Interchange opened to traffic on July 14.
Schwantes said messages that appear on the board will be able to do so instantaneously. She said it could be used for different alerts from “use caution, crash ahead” notifications to warning drivers about incoming snowstorms or putting chains on tires during the winter months.
Such message boards are present on U.S. Highway 160 East, on U.S. Highway 160 West near Twin Buttes and on U.S. Highway 550, she said.
Source: Durango Herald, Colorado Department of Transportation