Building tunnel, bridge at Marolt Open Space best scenario for mitigating Aspen traffic issues, options show

Wildfire evacuation times for Aspen are estimated to be at 17 hours, according to City Councilperson John Doyle.

Leading up to Monday’s City Council work session addressing possible options for an aging Castle Creek Bridge, a two-lane bottleneck that causes significant traffic issues leading into town, Doyle — to emphasize the potential urgency in Aspen — referenced the Ruidoso, New Mexico South Fork Fire, which ravaged 17,569 acres.

“That was late June. Two weeks ago, Jasper National Park in Alberta had to evacuate the town, which had 5,000 residents, but ended up being a total of 25,000 people because the park had so many visitors,” Doyle explained, drawing parallels to similar resort towns.

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Jake Andersen from the Aspen Fire Protection District clarified the basis for Doyle’s concerns.

“Mr. Doyle’s assessment for a 17-hour wildfire evacuation time was based on a LIDRIS AI simulation — with whom the city is working with for wildfire preparedness,” he said. “That assessment was based on a busier day, with the right conditions.” 

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Aspen’s options

On Monday, City Council discussed three possible options to improve its town entryway — and potentially loosen the bottleneck that is Castle Creek Bridge.

Option No. 1

Create an eastward modified-direct route from the Maroon Creek Road roundabout. 

In this scenario, the original Castle Creek Bridge remains. Instead, Colorado Highway 82 will be shifted southeast, a 400-foot-long tunnel will be constructed and lead to a new bridge constructed over the Marolt Open Space. The realignment will link to the intersection of Seventh and Main streets. Meanwhile, W. Hallam Street turns at Cemetery Lane and does not continue to Highway 82.

City officials and planners refer to this option as the “Phased Preferred Alternative” — similar to the project the city devised over 25 years ago, called the “1998 Record of Decision Preferred Alternative.”

This option was ranked best for traffic mitigation among all alternatives by Jacobs Engineering, the firm presenting these options. Morning bus commutes on Highway 82 between Brush Creek Park and Ride and Fifth Street in Aspen would decrease from 29 to 27 minutes. Meanwhile, evening traffic times between Aspen and Brush Creek would decrease from eight to seven minutes.

Option No. 2

In essence, this option looks similar to option No. 1. The original Castle Creek Bridge remains, a tunnel will be built after Maroon Creek Road roundabout, as well as a new bridge over Marolt Open Space, which will connect directly to Main Street. 

The main differences, however, are that W. Hallam Street won’t end at Cemetary Lane, and will reconnect with Highway 82. In addition, motorists cannot take left-hand turns into Cemetery Lane from Highway 82, nor can motorists take left-hand turns onto Highway 82 from Cemetery Lane. In other words, Cemetery Lane would be “right in, right out” only.

This option is known as “the split shot.” According to Jacobs, the split shot increases travel times in both directions. Travel times in mornings for this option, compared to no work being done, show that travel from Brush Creek to Fifth Street for general traffic would go up from roughly one hour to 1.5 hours. Bus traffic would increase from roughly 30 to 40 minutes.

Going from Fifth Street to Brush Creek in the evenings, travel time for general traffic would go from roughly 16 minutes to over 17 minutes. Bus times would decrease from roughly 22 minutes to 18 minutes. 

Option No. 3

The third alternative is called “3-lane shifted.”

The redesigned three-lane shifted bridge follows the current Highway 82 route just east of the Maroon Creek Road roundabout. This plan involves constructing a broader replacement for the existing Castle Creek Bridge to maintain two-way traffic throughout the construction period. In this scenario for the new bridge, there will be one lane going into town, and two out.

In addition, there will only be a westbound bus lane — which means there is no bus lane going into town.

City Councilmember Bill Guth asked why the third lane would only go with outbound traffic from town — to which Jacobs said was due to complications with managing a shifting direction lane, signage, and more.

Morning and evening travel times between Aspen and Brush Creek for this option are estimated to stay relatively the same for both general traffic and bus travel times, according to Jacobs.

In case of emergency

On Monday afternoon, Mayor Torre summarized the current state of discussions around emergency routes and infrastructure.

“Evacuation and emergency access are two factors that always play into decisions when you’re looking at roadways and infrastructure such as this,” he said.

He clarified the Council’s perspective on making community-centric decisions. 

“Personally, our vote is going to be what is best for the community and (wildfire evacuation) is just one of those factors,” he said.

Doyle also discussed the limitations of current evacuation routes in Aspen. 

“Essentially, we have Castle Creek Bridge and Power Plant Road,” he said. “Those are our two options. You have the pass too, but all of those are two-lane roads.”

Reflecting on the broader implications of infrastructure decisions, he added, “No matter which way our vote goes, I think half the town is going to be against it anyway.”

Part two of this discussion is slated for Monday, Aug. 12.