New access control plan in the works

MONTROSE — Residents got a look Tuesday at what changes to expect if Montrose’s access control plan for South Townsend goes into effect.

The city and county of Montrose are working with the Colorado Department of Transportation to manage traffic growth along the town’s main thoroughfare and areas of primary commercial development.

The city originally approved an access control plan in 2003, but the state highway commission did not adopt it, Community Development Director Kerwin Jensen said during a community open house Tuesday, which highlighted changes between 2003’s plan and the current proposal.

The changes, Jensen said, won’t be happening overnight, but are expected to take years and depend on both funding and future development.

But the changes are coming.

One of the first will affect South Townsend at Montrose Drive. This project is slated for next year, as the result of earlier CDOT funding, Jensen said. It calls for a median to be installed on Townsend between Church Street and Niagara. The median will break at Montrose Drive, to allow for full traffic movement, but the ultimate plan — once another access is added to the other end of Montrose Drive — is to restrict traffic to right-in, right-out only.

Jensen said other intersections along Townsend would also be thusly restricted.

The biggest change will result in Chipeta Drive ending in a cul de sac near the Ute Indian Museum. The road currently intersects with Highway 550 by the museum in a dangerous three-way intersection.

Chipeta would be re-routed through the Blue Sky development and intersect with the highway south of its current location; eventually, Jensen said, a traffic signal would be installed.

“That’s a much safer location,” he said.

Montrose County also has an interest in Chipeta.

Engineer Brian Wilson said he wanted access to the RV park on Chipeta assured as a condition of terminating the current road in a cul de sac. He also hoped the new Chipeta Road would be more in line with the old railroad grade, in order to remove a sharp right-hand bend that would occur if the new road ends up following the alignment currently proposed.

“If you’re the county wanting to move 6,000 cars a day down Chipeta, this doesn’t work well,” he said, but added that on the whole, it did work for development. “The design is commercially supportive, not necessarily through-traffic supportive.”

The access control plan will be presented at city council and board of county commission meetings in October.