For the next seven months, the La Sal Loop Road will just be the La Sal Road as the loop will be broken while crews replace the bridge over Mill Creek at the Oowah Lake turnoff, a process that will begin in early May and continue until the beginning of November.

    According to Grand County Road Department Supervisor Dave Warner, the bridge's condition is apparent to even a casual observer. "It's got stress cracks running underneath it," he said. "If you go under it and look you'll see."

    So the Federal Highway Department has decided to replace the bridge, which is in San Juan County, on a road maintained by Grand County, through property managed by the U.S. Forest Service. While each entity has some interest in the bridge, most of the road's traffic is for Forest Service access, and most of that is recreational.

    "When they wrote the contract, we wanted to make sure the campground at Oowah Lake remained open," Forest Service Recreation Staff Manager Brian Murdock said. "Our main concern is making sure the people have a good quality recreational experience."

    Climbing is also a popular activity in the area, with climbers parking along the road just south of the bridge to access the Mill Creek gorge. Murdock said they'll need to park at the turnout with the pit toilet just above the gorge. Signs will also encourage oversized campers and vehicles with trailers to turn around there, as the narrow road will also be the staging area for the construction, and a similar area will be designated on the Warner Lake side of the bridge.

    Warner Lake access will also be more challenging for Moab residents, who'll have to either drive through Castle Valley to get to the campground, or take the Sand Flats Road up. "We're going to do all that we can to keep Sand Flats maintained so that a passenger car can make it up there," Warner said, adding that the initial grading has been done.

    That will likely be good news for the local bicycle shuttle companies, who have been dropping riders for Porcupine Rim at the Kokopelli Trail, where it intersects the Loop Road. The Sand Flats route may provide a shorter option than driving through Castle Valley, although Bryan Nickell, owner of Porcupine Shuttle, was already counting the advantages of the slightly longer route.

    "If I have to go that way, I can meet them at the bottom of Porcupine, they can leave their cars there, and they don't have to ride back to town," Nickell said. He added that the trip is a mile longer, but it takes about 15 minutes more round-trip due to the twists and turns along the route. Still, he thinks customers will appreciate the drive. "I can point up to the right on the way out and say, "that's Porcupine Rim up there; that's where you'll be riding,'" he said.

    Perhaps the biggest disruption will be to the annual Moab Century bicycle tour, October 5-7, organized by the Moab Skinny Tire Festival. Organizer Mark Griffith has been following the planning for about a year and a half, so he's prepared to adapt. The Moab Century Tour bills the hill climb from Pack Creek up the Loop Road as "The Big Nasty," featuring it prominently on promotional materials, t-shirts, and riding jerseys.

    At the other end, tour organizers herald the speedy descent down the other side into Castle Valley as "The Blue Comet." Since riders are already aware of the hill's gravity, Griffith says he'll offer this as "an opportunity to experience the Blue Comet on the way up as well as down."

    The Moab Century is a fundraiser for the Lance Armstrong Foundation, which raises money for cancer awareness and research. Riders tend to have some experience with cancer, either personally or through friends or family, so the event has a distinctly emotional component.

    "My intent is to develop a relationship with the contractor, Adams and Smith, and convince them that there is a high level of importance to the hill climb," Griffith said. "For people dealing with cancer and its effects, it's a meaningful, physical expression; it's something to stash away in your heart."    

    Knowing that construction schedules are not set in stone, that they often include built-in flexibility to account for weather and other inconveniences, Griffith hopes for a smooth project that comes in ahead of time by about a month, and he'll be cheering on the contractor.