Pitkin County removing Colorado Highway 82 crossover near Aspen

Pitkin County, in coordination with the Colorado Department of Transportation, will be removing the Cozy Point crossover on Colorado Highway 82 this weekend to improve traffic safety and operations in anticipation of a larger intersection reconstruction in the coming years.

In the middle of “one of the busiest and most complex stretches of the highway,” as a press release calls it, the Cozy Point crossover between up- and down-valley lanes near Smith Way has seen increased makeshift “Michigan Lefts” this summer. These traffic maneuvers — where a driver traditionally turns right at an intersection, then makes a U-turn at a median crossover to then complete a left turn to head back in the original but opposite direction — have caused congestion and increased collision risk during peak morning hours.

“I can’t count the number of cars who want to go left there,” Parker Lathrop, chief deputy of operations at the Pitkin County Sheriff’s Office, said. “You’re not supposed to go in the acceleration lane to go left in that crossover.”

For the first 15 minutes of his shift Thursday, Lathrop said he went straight to the Cozy Point area to keep people from pulling that “ad hoc ‘Michigan Left.'”

Pitkin County Road and Bridge crews will perform the removal work under a CDOT Special Use Permit. Work will take place Saturday, Sept. 6, unless weather occurs, in which case it will be moved to Sept. 13. 

According to Pitkin County Engineer Andrew Knapp, up-valley traffic coming from Smith Way and merging onto up-valley traffic on Highway 82 has had a dedicated acceleration lane to get up to speed and merge. The Cozy Point crossover in the middle of that acceleration lane was not constructed to handle an up-valley lefthand turn. 

“People are diving into that acceleration lane and jamming on their breaks in front of traffic that’s trying to get up to speed to merge safely,” Knapp explained. “We’ve also seen, with the proliferation of that movement, people queued up to use the Cozy Point crossover and blocking that acceleration lane, as well.”

Both he and Lathrop noted this summer has seen an increase in this maneuver following discussions with Pitkin County commissioners about the potential reconfiguration of this entire intersection. 

“That conversation was picked up by the newspapers, and I noticed the frequency of that move definitely picking up after that conversation about the ‘Michigan Left’ at Smith Way,” Knapp said.

He confirmed the removal is anticipated to be about half a day of work with no impacts to mainline traffic on Highway 82. The down-valley lefthand deceleration lane will be closed to allow crews to perform the work, and the Smith Way acceleration lane may be shortened by traffic control to work on that side as well.

Once the crossover is removed, the access currently utilizing the Cozy Point crossover will be restricted to right-in, right-out movement only, according to the press release. 

In addition to the removal, Pitkin County was successful in receiving a grant from the Colorado Department of Transportation to reconstruct this intersection into what Knapp called “a reduced conflict U-turn.” The reconstruction will completely reconfigure the Highway 82 and Smith Way intersection into a formal “Michigan Left,” as well as add an up-valley acceleration lane for Lazy Glen intersection.

While the grant is for the 2028 fiscal year, he said there’s a good chance the construction could be accelerated to 2027. 

“We are proceeding full speed ahead with the design of the intersection reconfiguration and are hoping to get this constructed in 2027 if everything falls into place,” he said. “There’s a sad, long history of fatal accidents at Smith Way and also at Lazy Glen that we are eager to address with this intersection reconfiguration. I’m really excited about the opportunity we have here.”