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Matt D · 07-18-2017, 06:11 PM

Colorado's Highway 550 is a beautiful drive.

To keep it navigable, they are performing road work.

We had plans to drive with the coach and toad over that route in a week or so. Fortunately we took the F-150 toad over the route between Durango and Silverton today.

They have loose gravel and fresh oil between mile posts 50-65. These mile posts are what the CDOT posted. Personally, I think it's only 5-7 miles from mile post 65 northward. They stress maintaining the speed limit to avoid cracked windshields.

The problem is, even at 20MPH, we took 5 serious windshield chips from speeding opposite direction road work vehicles. 2 of the 5 are significant cracks requiring replacement. Argh! With the loose rocks and oil, I can't see avoiding problems with paint and glass on the coach. We will take the long way to Ouray this year.

Finally, just before the last switchbacks south of Silverton, there are two segments of the road that had a slide, and are down to one lane with all traffic blocked for around 30 minutes at a time in both directions. This problem is easily navigable in even the largest coach, it just costs a little extra time.

Drive safely,

-Matt

Jake21 · 07-18-2017, 07:09 PM

Thanks for the info. Good to know. I hate when they chipseal roads like that. We got a crack in Idaho a few weeks ago due to the same thing you describe.

sforl · 07-18-2017, 07:16 PM

Thanks for the heads up! I will be in that neighborhood next month!

Busskipper · 07-19-2017, 05:57 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Matt D

Colorado's Highway 550 is a beautiful drive.

To keep it navigable, they are performing road work.

We had plans to drive with the coach and toad over that route in a week or so. Fortunately we took the F-150 toad over the route between Durango and Silverton today.

They have loose gravel and fresh oil between mile posts 50-65. These mile posts are what the CDOT posted. Personally, I think it's only 5-7 miles from mile post 65 northward. They stress maintaining the speed limit to avoid cracked windshields.

The problem is, even at 20MPH, we took 5 serious windshield chips from speeding opposite direction road work vehicles. 2 of the 5 are significant cracks requiring replacement. Argh! With the loose rocks and oil, I can't see avoiding problems with paint and glass on the coach. We will take the long way to Ouray this year.

Finally, just before the last switchbacks south of Silverton, there are two segments of the road that had a slide, and are down to one lane with all traffic blocked for around 30 minutes at a time in both directions. This problem is easily navigable in even the largest coach, it just costs a little extra time.

Drive safely,

-Matt

Matt,

In all the discussions on 550 this is the First one to Convince me to not drive it in the RV,

Thanks for the Heads up, Always good to use CDOT - Road Conditions, Speeds, Travel Times, Traffic Cameras, Live Streaming Traffic Cameras, Road Closures and Road Work Information provided by Intelligent Transportation Systems (ITS) a branch of Colorado Department of Transportation - to know where the construction is.

Good info, Thanks for Sharing.