US-50 Bypass around Delta Has Begun!!!

[thenetwork]

65 years in the making, ground was recently broken on the new US-50 bypass/truck route around downtown Delta.

http://www.deltatruckroute.com/

Should be ready to go by Spring of 2014.

[The High Plains Traveler]

From what I saw in the link, this is going to be a city of Delta project. So, for now it won't be designated as an actual signed bypass or the mainline of U.S. 50 until, like in Montrose, there is a route swap. This will function more like Riverside Parkway in Grand Junction, probably signed as (at least) a truck bypass. Am I correct?

[thenetwork]

As far as I know, they intend to keep US-50 on it's existing alignment through Delta (they better, as they just replaced the overhead BGSs at the CO-92 junction).  It's more like a relief route for those who don't wish to get caught at the RR tracks just north of CO-92, nor at any of the 5 traffic signals through downtown Delta. 

Meanwhile, just down the road in Montrose, the overhead BGSs at the intersection of Townsend & Main (Old US-50 and US-550's original northern terminus) have been quickly disappearing.  At last check, CO-90 is pretty much a "hidden" route as there is really no notation of where CO-90 starts (or ends) now at that point.  And there still isn't any official US-550 reassurance markers between Main and San Juan Ave. -- the street that US-50 is now following around downtown -- so it's kind of hard to tell if US-550 has been extended to San Juan Ave., or if US-550 now does not intersect with it's parent route anymore.

[Milepost61]

Yeah I've heard nothing of US 50 being rerouted onto it, since it's a city project. I would think it will end up with some "Truck 50" signs like Montrose (pre-swap) and Lamar.

[J N Winkler]

And here I was, thinking this was a bypass of Delta, Utah . . .

[agentsteel53]

are the two cities named for the same thing?  seems awfully coincidental, being pretty close together, on the same road.

[J N Winkler]

It is possible.  Wikipedia says Delta, Colorado is so named because it contains the confluence of the Uncompahgre and Gunnison rivers.  Delta, Utah is not obviously a confluence, but it is on the Sevier River, and there is a nearby reservoir (Gunnison Reservoir) and Google Maps shows what appear to be three drainages leading into it.

[The High Plains Traveler]

It is possible.  Wikipedia says Delta, Colorado is so named because it contains the confluence of the Uncompahgre and Gunnison rivers.  Delta, Utah is not obviously a confluence, but it is on the Sevier River, and there is a nearby reservoir (Gunnison Reservoir) and Google Maps shows what appear to be three drainages leading into it.

I thought an additional significant coincidence was Gunnison Bend Reservoir in Delta UT and the totally unrelated Gunnison River flowing through Delta CO.

[kphoger]

It is possible.  Wikipedia says Delta, Colorado is so named because it contains the confluence of the Uncompahgre and Gunnison rivers.  Delta, Utah is not obviously a confluence, but it is on the Sevier River, and there is a nearby reservoir (Gunnison Reservoir) and Google Maps shows what appear to be three drainages leading into it.

I thought an additional significant coincidence was Gunnison Bend Reservoir in Delta UT and the totally unrelated Gunnison River flowing through Delta CO.

Not totally unrelated, since the reservoir and the river are both named after Captain John Williams Gunnison.

[The High Plains Traveler]

It is possible.  Wikipedia says Delta, Colorado is so named because it contains the confluence of the Uncompahgre and Gunnison rivers.  Delta, Utah is not obviously a confluence, but it is on the Sevier River, and there is a nearby reservoir (Gunnison Reservoir) and Google Maps shows what appear to be three drainages leading into it.

I thought an additional significant coincidence was Gunnison Bend Reservoir in Delta UT and the totally unrelated Gunnison River flowing through Delta CO.

Not totally unrelated, since the reservoir and the river are both named after Captain John Williams Gunnison.

Good point, though I was thinking in hydrologic terms.