Matthews: Castle Creek Bridge report details traffic diversions

Rachel Richards LTE: “Perhaps this is why it wasn’t on November’s ballot” attacks the city of Aspen for a faulty poll. The poll is junk but she misses the mark on the facts. The Jacobs report (July 31, 2024, Attach. B pp. 3, 6 and 8) lays it all out including accurate diagrams. A critical problem of the split shot concept is the diversion of Cemetery Lane traffic (also a defect of the straight shot). But Richards incorrectly attributes that well-documented issue to a new Castle Creek Bridge (two or three lanes) on the existing alignment. Jacobs clearly details those traffic diversions, out only to the roundabout in the split shot alignment and into town only in the straight shot. In contrast, a new bridge along the existing alignment does not divert Cemetery Lane traffic at all.

She has it all wrong and her assertions and material misrepresentations about a three-lane bridge are baseless.

Richards needs an injection of truth serum. Playing fast and loose with the facts is not a good look when seeking voter support. As the Entrance debate moves forward, fact checking may become a full time but necessary job.

Dee Matthews

Washington/Aspen