Montrose County weighs $5.8 million fix for Kinnickinn Road after slope failure

The Montrose County Board of County Commissioners on March 3 heard that repairing a failing section of Kinnickinn Road could cost as much as $5.8 million after county staff described continuous water infiltration and unstable shale beneath the roadway.

Mikey Matthews, a county staff member who led the project update, told the board crews stopped work late last fall after encountering persistent water that ‘‘undermined the toe of that original slide’’ and forced the removal of much more unsuitable material than planned. ‘‘It was just constant flow of water,’’ Matthews said.

County engineers and contractors surveyed the site and recalculated materials, labor and oversight, Matthews said. He gave a near-term estimate of about $1.8 million to $2.2 million to finish remaining engineering, testing, buy rock fill and bring a contractor back to reopen the road for traffic. He added that the chosen measures to reopen the road are not permanent.

Matthews said a longer-term solution would require installing an underdrain system to capture groundwater and control seepage. ‘‘It’s roughly about 3,600,000 for that drain system,’’ he said, which would put a full repair near $5.4 million to $5.8 million for the roughly thousand feet of roadway under discussion — assuming no additional unforeseen conditions.

The county has already spent money on the effort, Matthews said; the expenditure to date is about $1.6 million to $1.8 million.

Commissioners and staff emphasized that the estimates depend on additional geotechnical work. Commissioners asked whether the county had drilled from the top of the slope to determine the depth of the shale layer; Matthews said the county had not, and that drilling and subsequent design work ‘‘could be several $100,000’’ and take months.

Residents at the meeting urged the board to act because of safety and access concerns. ‘‘I just think that regardless of what the cost is, it’s absolutely crucial that we fix this road, fix it right,’’ said Michael Bowling, who lives near the site and told the board he had seen substantially more water running alongside the road in recent years. Bowling asked whether a culvert or other capture higher on the mesa could divert runoff before it reaches the slope.

Resident Jeff Downs described Kinnickinn Road as an essential thoroughfare for ranching and commerce and warned of emergency egress problems during wildfire seasons. ‘‘We had a lightning strike… and we would only had 1 way out,’’ Downs said, arguing that the county should prioritize a durable repair so residents have multiple routes in and out.

Resident Kimberly Bowling asked about emergency response times if the road remains closed. She told the board that dispatch and station coverage could require responders to travel a much longer route, producing delays in care. Chair said the board is ‘‘acutely aware of the safety issues’’ and that the project presents a difficult fiscal decision.

Board members also noted monitoring data: one commissioner said installed piezometers found water ‘‘way deep’’ below the roadway and described the subsurface flow as akin to ‘‘an underground river,’’ underscoring the complexity of locating and capturing groundwater.

Next steps: the chair said this meeting was a work session and that the board will schedule a public hearing. Staff asked residents to provide contact information so the county can alert them about the next hearing and follow-up outreach.

The work session adjourned with no formal decision to commit to a specific repair option or funding plan.