ASPEN — Amid much back-patting among local and state officials, and one last flurry of honking horns and a few one-finger salutes from frustrated motorists, the Maroon Creek Bridge and new bus lanes on Highway 82 on the outskirts of Aspen were formally opened Monday.

Monday afternoon’s commuters were the first to travel on the newly reconfigured highway between the Maroon Creek Road roundabout and Buttermilk — a stretch that now features two lanes for general traffic and two that are dedicated to bus travel.

The bus lanes, which allow Roaring Fork Transportation Authority buses to slip past what is likely to be a clogged lane of private vehicles and construction trucks at certain times of the day, will “revolutionize transit in the upper Roaring Fork Valley,” said RFTA President and CEO Dan Blankenship.

On Monday, though, traffic was stopped in both directions, on either end of the bridge, to accommodate a ribbon cutting and a ceremonial first bus trip on the upvalley bus lane — staged events that some stuck motorists did not appreciate.

Construction of the $9 million bus lanes began last April and wrapped up about a month ahead of schedule, according to the Colorado Department of Transportation. Work on the new bridge began in late June 2005 and was originally supposed to be done a year ago. Utility relocation forced an extension of the project, and the span opened with one lane of traffic in each direction last July. Workers removed the last of the traffic cones Monday morning, opening the 73-foot-wide bridge deck in its entirety to coincide with the debut of the bus lanes.

The bridge construction cost nearly $14 million, and the entire bridge project, including utility relocation and design, cost about $17 million. Local governments in the upper valley kicked in $1.5 million for the design and $900,000 toward the construction.

The new bridge allowed CDOT to retire the old Maroon Creek Bridge — a 120-year-old former railroad trestle — from the state’s highway system.

During remarks Monday, various CDOT officials recalled the anxieties created by the deficient, old bridge. At one point in 1993, the state briefly dropped its rating for the old Maroon Creek span from 41 out of a possible 100 to a score of nine. Five years ago, inspectors threatened to close the bridge, shutting off access on the main route in and out of Aspen. Emergency repairs, load limits and hydraulic jacks kept it open.

The new bridge features the first solar-powered lights of any state highway bridge in Colorado, according to Joe Elsen, CDOT program engineer. The lights illuminate the pedestrian/bicycle path on one side of the span.

The old bridge, on the National Register of Historic Places, will remain — with its highway deck in place. There has been talk of creating some pedestrian use or viewing platform on the span, which sits adjacent to the new bridge, but the pedestrian path along the highway is on the opposite side of Highway 82, Elsen noted.

The old bridge is slated to carry light rail, if that transit alternative ever comes to pass, added Aspen Mayor Mick Ireland.

Light rail remains part of the vision, rather than the reality, for the Entrance to Aspen. The bus lanes were approved as an interim transit component.

Also unbuilt is the final link between the roundabout and town — a controversial realignment of Highway 82 across open space, including a new bridge over Castle Creek, linking the highway to the upper end of Main Street and bypassing the S-curves bottleneck.

Whether funding from cash-strapped CDOT and majority support from local voters to finish the entrance will ever materialize remains to be seen.

“A lot of people put a lot of thought into that plan,” said Dorothea Farris, Pitkin County commissioner. “Maybe we’ll look at our own [infrastructure] and say, you know what, it’s really dumb not to finish this.”

For now, though, the final piece of the entrance lacks community consensus, Ireland said.

“This is really about the community, it’s not about the elected officials,” he said. “These things are things that can suddenly come together. All we can do at the city is promote the environment for them to come together.”

janet@aspentimes.com

What happens if motorists drive in the bus lanes? Motorists lingering in Highway 82’s dedicated bus lanes are more likely to see a bus bearing down on them than a ticket-happy police officer. But that doesn’t mean Aspen police won’t be keeping an eye on the traffic, Police Chief Richard Pryor said. “We’re definitely going to be out and about,” said Pryor, attending Monday’s formal opening of the new bus lanes and Maroon Creek Bridge on the edge of town. “The bus lanes have been put in place for a reason — to get the buses in and out — and we’re certainly going to support that effort,” he said. Officers will be educating commuters to start, though, not handing out citations with a heavy hand. The bus-only lanes are well-marked on the pavement, but that won’t be easy to see once the snow starts falling, Pryor noted. “The real test will be come winter. Hopefully, by then, the regular commuting crowd will be familiar with the way things are,” he said. Then, police will concentrate on educating tourists and making sure hotels and car-rental companies understand the buses-only lanes and communicate the rules to visitors, Pryor said. Not all of the bus lanes, which extend from the roundabout to Buttermilk, are in the city’s jurisdiction. On the Buttermilk end, the highway is in unincorporated Pitkin County. —Janet Urquhart