Major Castle Creek Bridge, entrance to Aspen improvements? At least three years, and up to $4 million away, city says

It won’t be for at least another three years and $3-4 million later that any major work will be done on Castle Creek Bridge or the entrance to Aspen, City Council said Thursday.

Aspen City Council said during an Elected Official Transportation Committee (EOTC) meeting only smaller repairs requested by the Colorado Department of Transportation (CDOT), which conducted an October inspection, will be implemented to the current bridge.

According to CDOT, if Castle Creek Bridge were to be replaced today, that would begin construction on the final portions of the 1998 Record of Decision (ROD), which includes the Preferred Alternative.

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The Preferred Alternative is an approved addition to Colorado Highway 82 that would run north of the roundabout and travel across a new, additional bridge, which would span across the Marolt Open Space. The existing Castle Creek Bridge in the preferred alternative would remain, with the aim of creating less traffic congestion going in and out of town for commuters.  

The Preferred Alternative, as currently approved, makes use of a projected light rail system, which would run alongside the newly-constructed road. Aspen City Attorney Jim True has said that Aspen requires a new ballot question asking to allow bus lanes to be created in the light rail’s place; he said this is required due to Aspen’s Open Space Land Use Code. 

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CDOT has said that bus lanes can be used in the interim until a light rail can be constructed, yet both City Council and CDOT have said that they are open to working with one another while this process plays out. 

Aspen Mayor Torre said during the EOTC meeting that Castle Creek Bridge is a CDOT and Federal Highway Administration asset. 

“The state owns this bridge,” Torre said. “I ran into the director of CDOT, and I thanked her for doing the great job that she does. We feel we are very lucky that she is the director. We have a good relationship with CDOT.”

He said that CDOTs number-one priority is the safety and continual use of the existing bridge.

“That is their No. 1 priority, and that is our No. 1 priority as well,” Therre said. “I told CDOT that we are interested in getting into the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) process, by starting a new environmental impact statement (EIS), and that we, as City Council, understood there is a reason for such evaluations that needed to be done for projects like this.”

CDOT has stated in past letters to City Council that if construction were to begin on the existing Preferred Alternative, a new EIS would not be needed for either a bridge that would replace the current Castle Creek Bridge, as long as it was completed in the same right of way that currently exists, or for the Preferred Alternative, as currently approved in the 1998 ROD. A new EIS is only needed if any changes are to be made to the existing ROD.

Still, City Council has said that it will open a new EIS to make changes to the existing ROD, a process that is anticipated to take three years and cost $3-4 million, in order to look at better alternatives to the Preferred Alternative. 

This NEPA process would also prevent the Preferred Alternative from being constructed in the scenario that the existing Castle Creek Bridge needs to be replaced, according to CDOT.

Torre cited Aspen’s changing ideals in what the community would like to see and has said that it may be possible to create what is known as a split-shot route, which is similar to the Preferred Alternative. It would run across the Marolt Open Space with a second bridge — or a three-lane bridge replacement for where the current Castle Creek Bridge stands. 

City Council has already spent over $1 million, working with Jacobs Engineering, to design alternative routes other than the Preferred Alternative. 

City Council plans to conduct community polling to get Aspen’s take on what entrance to Aspen project makes the most sense — outside of the Preferred Alternative — while it begins the NEPA process. 

“We recognize that the bridge we currently utilize is reaching the end of its lifespan, and something will need to be done,” Torre said. “What we’ve heard from our community is that there are some items in the Preferred Alternative that need re-evaluation.”

He added that issues community members have reached out to City Council about, including: True’s assessment of issues with using bus lanes instead of the light rail across open space, the position of a historic cabin located next to the proposed Preferred Alternative route that may need to be moved, the placement of a traffic light along Main and Seventh streets, and the second bridge across the Marolt Open Space. 

“When we poll the community, we want to see what their disagreements are, what they are looking for that is better than the Preferred Alternative as it currently exists. That is what we are looking for,” Torre said. “This is why we are where we are at. We know something will have to be done because of the current state of our bridge, and we want to look at our best opportunities moving forward.”

Pitkin County Commissioner Francie Jacober asked him if he was aware of the previous polling that was done in the mid-2000s, where Aspen failed to pass approval for moving forward with the already approved 1998 ROD Preferred Alternative by a margin of 15 votes. Yet Pitkin County overwhelmingly supported moving forward with ROD and Preferred Alternative by a couple of thousand votes.

Torre said he does not have a recollection of those polling results.

“The goals of those living in Glenwood Springs and downvalley, wanting a four-lane highway in and out of Aspen, does not mesh up with the goals and values we have on this end of the valley,” he said. “That is not something that meets the criteria of what we’re trying to do here.” 

Regardless, many members were not pleased about the further potential delays in completing a project that was originally approved 26 years ago, along with potential delays in replacing a bridge that is nearing the end of its projected life span.  

City Manager Sara Ott said that even if Castle Creek Bridge becomes rated in the poor category, a rating that would be below a five out of 10, the bridge will still be usable and safe. The bridge is currently rated at five out of 10, and is in fair condition.

“A poor rating does not mean the bridge is failing,” Ott said. “It means that the bridge will get put on the watch list. Higher priority goes to the projects that continue to drop in ratings. That means more frequent evaluations and beginning planning for superstructure improvements but not necessarily a replacement, potentially.”

She stressed that the bridge will remain safe and that this is all part of the process when moving forward with these bigger projects. She said that a lot of times, these conversations miss how critical the state transportation funding process is and works, and that this is all part of how the planning happens.

“We are right in the middle of that process right now, and this is an absolutely critical step to project the future needs of our community,” she added. “This is an important part of our ten-year planning process, even if we do not know the exact alignment yet moving forward.”

City Council is asking the EOTC for $1 million for the EIS process, which the EOTC said it will consider taking up sometime next year during a supplemental request.