Guest Commentary: The straight shot can wait

Yasmine de Pagter and Barb Pitchford, Special to the Aspen Daily News

Jun 13, 2024

It’s time to set aside the debate about the 1998 straight-shot plan and focus on the most pressing problem facing Aspen in 2024: rebuilding Castle Creek Bridge as soon as possible.

With or without the straight shot, there is no getting around Castle Creek Bridge. The bridge is essential to Aspen traffic flows whether the straight shot ever wins voter approval, secures state-funding, survives multiple lawsuits and is ultimately built.

Aspen simply cannot wait eight to 15 years for that process to play out while our singular access point into and out of town is at increasing risk of failure.

The U.S. Highway 50 bridge over Blue Mesa Reservoir is a cautionary tale. Blue Mesa Bridge was rated “fair” until just a few weeks ago when a 3-inch crack appeared in a steel support beam, shutting down the bridge in both directions and cutting off the town of Gunnison from the west. Car traffic from Montrose is detoured for months on a temporary gravel road, with trucks rerouted an additional six to eight hours via I-70.

Blue Mesa Bridge was built in 1962-63, while Castle Creek Bridge was built in 1961. City engineers have been sending up flares about our bridge for years. We should believe them.

A March report by Jacobs Engineering, hired by the city to examine Castle Creek Bridge, rates the bridge “fair” and concludes in no uncertain terms that it must be replaced or repaired, and soon.

Jacobs’ “three-lane-shifted” bridge replacement option is a no-brainer. It rebuilds the bridge within the current right of way with a third lane that keeps two lanes open at all phases of construction. Jacobs concludes there would be no significant traffic disruptions while the bridge is being rebuilt.

We applaud the mayor and the Aspen City Council for hiring Jacobs and confirming the feasibility of replacing the bridge. Keeping two lanes open during construction is the main advantage of the three-lane-shifted concept, but when construction is complete, we will have a three-lane bridge with 50% additional capacity to speed traffic out of town in the afternoon. It’s the only plan on the table that gives the West End any relief from the unbearable congestion they suffer every weekday afternoon.

A legal opinion presented recently to Mayor Torre, commissioned by the nonprofit Friends of Marolt Park, concludes that replacing the bridge in the current right-of-way qualifies for a categorical exclusion from a lengthy NEPA review process. Sidestepping a costly Environmental Impact Study allows engineering design and grant requests to begin in time for the next federal grant cycle in March 2025. The Jacobs’ plan has a near-term price tag of just $84 million, a fraction of the burgeoning cost of the supersized straight shot that will only rise in the years before construction could begin.

The three-lane-shifted option would be a boon to the Castle Creek — actually removing the giant concrete pier that now disrupts creek flows. And it keeps intact Marolt Open Space — Aspen’s cherished in-town meadow, community garden, Holden-Marolt Historic Site and scenic front yard.

The legal opinion also confirms that the 1998 Record of Decision does not have to be reopened to replace the existing bridge. That leaves the straight shot on the table for the future if all the stars align with a public vote, highway funding and a new EIS process. We give up nothing by acting now to rebuild the 1961 bridge and head off the risks of a bridge failure.

City staff repeatedly says that the straight shot is “an infrastructure solution, not a traffic solution.” Despite its six-lane asphalt girth, the straight shot offers no significant traffic improvement, and will likely make traffic worse for a number of reasons. A new stoplight at 7th and Main would become a new pinch point to rival the S-curves. Closing Highway 82 between Cemetery Lane and the roundabout would cut off downvalley access to and from Cemetery Lane and funnel all that traffic into town.

But we must kick the can on the straight-shot debate and focus on first things first: replacing Castle Creek Bridge and proactively addressing the possibility of a sudden bridge failure that would cripple our town.