Dear Editor,

I’d like to bring an important safety issue to the public’s attention. A couple of winters ago a woman was killed on a blind and narrow curve situated above a very steep embankment, located about four miles south of Silt, along County Road 331. After repeated requests to correct the situation, a double-yellow line (largely ignored by many) was added to the length of the county road, which averages 11 feet either side of center line.

Several months ago a loosely accumulated dirt shoulder was incorporated against the blacktop, along the curve in question, providing the appearance of a stable, widened surface. As suspected, monsoonal rains earlier this fall acted to erode and undermine sections from the embankment.

The road and bridge supervisor has informed me that work is “pretty much completed until they hear different from the county.” The roadway, already shown to be fatally hazardous, combined with this latest Band-Aid measure, may once again be so, once snow and ice cover the line discerning between blacktop and the loose, eroded and undermined dirt shoulder.

Should a large natural gas service truck (perhaps transporting combustible and hazardous liquids) cross into the northbound lane – as very large vehicles must do in order to negotiate the inside curve – please consider unthinkable yet potential impacts to schoolchildren riding the bus, residents of County Road 331, county workers, truck drivers and our larger community.

I publicly implore our Garfield County Commissioners to correct this potentially disastrous situation before winter.

Lisa Bracken

Silt