After historic floods largely isolated a southwestern Colorado town, crews race to reopen critical highways

Katie Langford, The Denver Post on Nov 10, 2026

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DENVER — Colorado Department of Transportation crews are working to reopen at least one southern Colorado highway this weekend after historic, back-to-back floods this fall caused extensive damage and left some communities largely cut off from the rest of the state.

Pagosa Springs remains all but completely isolated after floodwaters washed away surrounding roadways and took out a bridge, with the only way into town requiring a hourslong detour south through New Mexico.

U.S. 160 west of Pagosa Springs to Bayfield will likely be closed until January, CDOT officials said Tuesday. Crews are working around the clock after flooding from the Piedra River destroyed a bridge pier and caused a section to collapse in the early hours of Nov. 1. The bridge is a little less than halfway between Pagosa Springs and Durango and about 200 miles southwest of metro Denver.

CDOT officials held a news conference on Tuesday to give updates on extended highway closures in southwestern Colorado, which started after back-to-back storms caused flooding throughout the Four Corners region in late October and early November, damaging infrastructure and shutting down major roadways. The damage between the two floods is expected to be more than $100 million.

A temporary bridge for U.S. 160 over the Piedra River is being shipped to the area in pieces and will take construction crews 30 days to assemble if they work non-stop, said Julie Constan, CDOT’s southwest Colorado transportation director. A new, permanent bridge over the river will likely be finished by the end of 2027.

State crews are working to partially reopen U.S. 160 over Wolf Creek Pass this weekend, which connects Pagosa Springs to South Fork, as workers dig out fields of mud, rocks and debris that are hundreds of feet long and up to 8 feet deep, Constan said.

CDOT teams are also working nonstop to reopen Colorado 151 south of Chimney Rock National Monument, which connects Pagosa Springs to Arboles, Ignacio, the Southern Ute Reservation and Durango.

Flooding heavily damaged four sections of a 3-mile stretch of the highway, Constan said. State leaders are working to get the road partially reopened by Thanksgiving.

The first round of storms in late October dropped 7 inches of rain on southwestern Colorado in three days, mostly on Pagosa Springs and Archuleta County, Constan said. When the second round of storms started nine days later, the saturated ground and overflowing rivers could not absorb any more moisture, also hammering Durango and La Plata County.

Constan said it was both awe-inspiring and heartbreaking to see the power and devastation of the floods. She remembers seeing old photographs of a flood that hit Pagosa Springs in 1911.

“I never thought I’d see it myself in my lifetime, but we did,” she said.

CDOT has enough money to finish the temporary repairs and is working with federal agencies to get emergency relief funding, executive director Shoshana Lew said.

State officials estimated the first flood caused $65 million in damage and have not finished damage assessments from the second round of flooding, though it will likely be in the neighborhood of $100 million, Lew said.

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