No ballot question for Castle Creek Bridge options, Aspen City Council decides

Ray K. Erku/The Aspen Times
No question for the November ballot. No immediate action to replace an aging bridge.
Instead, Aspen City Council decided during a Tuesday special meeting to wait until at least December to review an upcoming Castle Creek Bridge inspection to be conducted by the Colorado Department of Transportation in late October or early November.
The council also approved staff to devise a resolution for further discussion on Castle Creek and the “Entrance to Aspen,” which includes hiring an outside environmental lawyer, looking into what is required for a National Environmental Policy Act – Environmental Impact Statement, along with other issues such as funding.
Tuesday’s meeting, held to develop ballot language over options to mitigate ongoing issues with Castle Creek Bridge, drew ire from many Roaring Fork Valley residents. They showed up in strong opposition to any ballot measure, instead emphasizing the urgency of addressing the replacement of the Castle Creek Bridge.
Elizabeth Siegel, a lawyer and former Colorado Mountain College teacher, said the ballot measures make no sense, and that there’s no rush to the ballot issues in November but “there is an emergency with Castle Creek Bridge.”
“We have spent 20 years going over this (Castle Creek Bridge and the Entrance to Aspen),” she said. “You have all the facts and have spent millions of dollars, and you have been briefed on issues that the public has yet to consider.”
Rachel Richards, an Aspen resident, echoed Siegel’s sentiments, expressing frustration over the lack of decisive action by the City Council.
“70% of our workforce lives on the other side of the bridge,” she said, highlighting concerns about environmental policy and public safety, particularly in the context of wildfire evacuation and the National Environmental Policy Act. “We will see even more in the future.”

The proposed ballot measures would have specifically asked voters to decide on the “Entrance to Aspen” and the implementation of the Preferred Alternative.
The Preferred Alternative, as outlined by the city of Aspen, proposes the construction of two general-use lanes and two dedicated bus lanes, which could potentially be converted into light rail or trackless tram lanes in the future.
This plan includes building a new bridge over Castle Creek along a revised route, intended to enhance transit capacity and reduce travel times.
The highway under this plan would cover 5.4 acres of the Marolt-Thomas properties — otherwise known as the Marolt Open Space — with 2.5 acres being reclaimed through a land bridge and the decommissioned section of Colorado Highway 82. The existing Castle Creek Bridge would remain in service, handling local traffic to Cemetery Lane and McLain Flats.
At the special meeting, this was referred to as “Option 1” to be used as potential ballot language. This involves constructing bus lanes with the flexibility to transition to a light rail transit system if community support emerges.
City Attorney Jim True has indicated that, under municipal code, a public vote is required for any alterations to open space, which includes using bus lanes to be used as an interim solution for a future approved railway.
Option 2 uses different language that states a different approach to be discussed during the meeting, which would permit the construction of bus lanes across the Marolt and Thomas properties without endorsing the 1998 Preferred Alternative explicitly.
This option would leave room for future alternatives, such as the “split shot,” without requiring another community vote.
The “split shot” is similar to the Preferred Alternative in that it still crosses the Marolt Open Space with a new Castle Creek Bridge, while keeping the old bridge in place, but differs by cutting off Highway 82 traffic from Cemetary Lane, instead directing all traffic through the roundabout.
Allyn Harvey, representing the Friends of Marolt Open Space group, expressed concerns about the rushed nature of the ballot discussion.
“The lack of mitigation in the ballot language suggests that there is the potential to transfer the right-of-way over open spaces to CDOT, which would give CDOT more leverage over the community,” he said.

The 1998 Record of Decision — which had critical criteria passed by Aspen voters, Snowmass and Aspen town councils and Pitkin County Commission in 1996 — gave the Colorado Department of Transportation an easement over the Marolt Open Space for the original Preferred Alternative to be completed.
The Friends of Marolt Open Space, however, prefer no easement at all over Marolt Open Space.
City Councilmember Bill Guth, whose say-in was recently deemed not a conflict of interest despite him living close to Marolt Open Space, expressed concerns about expecting voters to fully grasp Preferred Alternative nuances.
“The Preferred Alternative is such a complicated issue,” he said. “Expecting the electorate of Aspen to understand the nuance of that is unreasonable.”
The Transportation Department has indicated that if the bridge’s rating falls to a poor level (4 or less out of 10), they would initiate the construction of a new bridge, potentially beginning the implementation of the Preferred Alternative as approved in the original 1998 Record of Decision.
Previous Transportation Department reports have rated sections of the bridge as fair (5 out of 10).
Aspen Mayor Torre inquired about the feasibility of repairs versus a complete replacement of the bridge.
“Will we find out if there are any repairs that would buy us 10 years, or what can we expect from the inspection?” Torre said.
Aspen Director of Parking and Transportation Pete Rice mentioned that while some of the bridge joints were in poor condition, Aspen managed to improve them to a rating acceptable to the Transportation Department. However, the department would not begin planning any rehabilitation efforts unless the bridge received a poor rating.
Councilmember Sam Rose highlighted the city’s investment in the Jacobs Engineering report over the past year, amounting to $1.3 million.
“I have been steadfast in wanting to move this issue forward,” he said. “After listening to council members and community members about the Castle Creek issue, I cannot reiterate enough how much I believe we need to move forward on this.”
Aspen voters urged to support Referendum 2
Referendum 2 seeks to amend Aspen’s Home Rule Charter, allowing the Colorado Department of Transportation (CDOT) to use specific portions of the Marolt and Thomas properties for realigning Colorado Highway 82.