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| 12/7/2007 12:11:00 PM | Email this article • Print this article | New location for interchange raises stir
Lynda James
Correspondent
Many Park County residents have voiced a clear message to Colorado Department of Transportation representatives that constructing a grade-separated interchange at County Roads 43 and 72 and U.S. 285 on Crow Hill in northeast Park County, but leaving the stop light at 43A less than a half mile further north, would increase safety concerns, not decrease them. One person attending the meeting expressed approval of the new design and location, but the other speakers expressed opposition.
CDOT project engineer Stephen Harelson presented the new plans for the CDOT-named Deer Creek Interchange at a CDOT-sponsored meeting on Nov. 27 held at the Platte Canyon Fire Protection District's Fire Station #2 on Crow Hill. Also attending the meeting were CDOT Design Project Manager Carrie Coates; Bailey-area resident and CDOT Construction Project Engineer John Kacinski; Bridge Design Engineer John Broadus, from consulting firm HDR Engineering; and Park County Development Services Coordinator Tom Eisenman.
About 35 residents attended the meeting. CDOT representatives didn't ask residents to state their names before speaking at the meeting, so residents who spoke are not mentioned by name in this article.
The interchange location proposed in the 2005 Environmental Assessment has been changed from directly north of the current stoplight at U.S. 285 and CR 43/72 to south and uphill of the current stoplight for Delwood Square and Platte Canyon Fire Station #2. The interchange will be an underpass instead of the overpass proposed at the original location (portrayed in the picture of the old plan). U.S. 285 will be constructed as two bridges over the underpass. Harelson said the bridges that will become the new roadway of U.S. 285 will be similar to the type of overpass bridge crossing U.S. 285 near the Loaf and Jug in Aspen Park.
Stop signs will be located at the end of the on and off ramps. The grade of the ramps from U.S. 285 to the underpass will be 6 to 7 percent.
Environmental Assessment
The Environmental Assessment is the document developed and used by CDOT to explore and address impacts from construction projects and determines highway improvement project location to alleviate traffic congestion on state highways.
Harelson said the main factors involved in changing the location on Crow Hill were the cost of grading to lower elevation on CR 43's side, extending and elevating the road on CR 72's side; right-of-way acquisition of commercial property on CR 43's side; and wetlands mitigation to extend CR 72 for the 2005 proposed interchange location north of the current intersection.
Wetland mitigation would include constructing a solid retaining wall along the east side of the expanded length of CR 72. (See photo of original location.)
He said CDOT would save $3 million in costs by using the new location south of the stoplight at CR 43/72. Current projections are $6 million to complete the interchange at the new location.
Harelson said the location was more conducive to a less expensive underpass due to the elevation increase on Crow Hill.
The Environmental Assessment also has an interchange slated for CR 43A, but it recommends that interchange be built by the future developer of the commercial property known as Deer Creek Corners.
According to information presented at the meeting by residents, Regency Centers Corp., which has been in negotiations with Deer Creek Corners' property owner James (Duke) Dozier, is no longer interested in the property and Dozier has the commercial property for sale.
Landowner's viewpoint
But Dozier told The Flume in a follow-up conversation that that's incorrect information about Regency, which is a Jacksonville, Fla.-based real estate investment trust that is traded on the New York Stock Exchange.
"We are still under contract with them (Regency), and we expect they will build a super market-anchored shopping center there in the foreseeable future," Dozier said.
Delays have been caused by Regency's concern about the population to support a center at that location because Regency typically assumes a center in the Denver area will draw from a three-mile area. But Dozier said he thinks the marketing area for a center on the 43A property will reach as far south as Fairplay. "It's proving up that we have the number of people to support the stores," he said.
Dozier is president of Deer Creek Plaza LLC and managing partner of Dozier Family Investments Limited Liability Partnerships. They are the two entities that own the Dozier-related land at the U.S. 285/CR 43A intersection. The property that Regency is interested in is about 19 acres on the south side of CR 43A. There's another 1.28 acres on the north side, and Dozier said he had an offer on that property last week.
Harelson said the stoplight at CR 43A at Deer Creek Corners would remain a full functioning light. In order to facilitate movement through the stoplight, the current north-bound single lane will be expanded to two lanes from CR 43/72 to just past Rosalie Road.
Residents expressed concern that keeping the stoplight at CR 43A would cause a higher accident rate as traffic increased speed traveling down Crow Hill to the intersection. They also said that a setting sun shining on the stoplight makes it hard for drivers to distinguish whether the light is green or red.
Most residents agreed that the CR 43A intersection should be changed to right-turn-in and right-turn-out only at U.S. 285 when the new interchange is opened. That means vehicles could turn right onto CR 43A and right onto U.S. 285, but vehicles could not turn left from CR 43A onto US 285 and head north. Vehicles would have to turn right onto U.S. 285 and use the underpass to drive north onto U.S. 285.
Harelson said CDOT has a right to restrict access onto state highways if safety conditions warrant restrictions, such as right turns only.
According to Dozier, the agreement with CDOT calls for a CR 43A/U.S. 285 intersection that has both right-hand and left-hand turns.
"We've been told we will have a full-movement intersection, and we expect them to abide by the agreement we have," he said.
The current CR 43A/U.S. 285 intersection was paid for by Park County, by the Deer Creek Metropolitan District, and by CDOT, Dozier said.
Residents also asked why CDOT was using an EA that had been completed before the stoplight at CR 43A was installed. (CR 43A was built before the EA was completed. The stoplight was added later.)
One audience member said the EA should be amended and that the new location for an interchange would fix problems for those using CR 72, but not those using CR 43. Another said, "If you are going to do it, do it right. Look to the future."
Harelson said he was not the decision-maker, but would take suggestions from attendees to a CDOT meeting on the interchange on Friday, Nov. 30.
Accident rates
In a follow-up conservation after the Friday CDOT meeting, Harelson said he had been directed to review accident rates at both intersections, but the decision-makers were inclined to leave CR 43A as a full functioning intersection with a stoplight and review the impacts after the interchange had been functioning for a couple of years. He said a final decision would be made after his traffic accident review.
When asked why the interchange was now the second to be built out of the seven slated interchanges between Foxton Road in Conifer and Bailey, Harelson said two criteria were considered - safety and political influence. He said the main criteria for the Deer Creek interchange being constructed next after Richmond Hill was political.
A few years ago, Park County's Board of County Commissioners approved moving money to complete the EA in Park County to completing work on U.S. 285 from Foxton Road to Richmond Hill. He said, "Now the money is coming back to you."
Residents also expressed concern for the new location of the interchange.
Some said the 2005 proposed location was better because it did not funnel traffic past the fire station, which could be an issue during emergency responses by the fire department and the ambulance service. Both occupy the same building on Crow Hill.
Driving time
One woman was concerned about increased driving time and safety to access U.S. 285 if CR 43A became a right-turn-only intersection, forcing drivers to use the CR 43/72 interchange even when hazardous conditions exist at a sharp curve on CR 43 just before the current intersection at CR 43/72. Some offered suggestions of alternative sites for an interchange that could possibly better resolve traffic issues.
Others made suggestions on how to increase safety now, such as increasing the stoplight timing to turn left from US 285 onto CR 72 and decreasing the height of the berms at CR 43A to increase visibility.
Harelson said the final design would be completed in January 2008, and changes could be made until the final design is accepted. He said CDOT plans to put the proposal out for construction bids in April, with construction beginning in the summer of 2008 and completed in the summer of 2009.
Currently, the new plans are not on CDOT's Web site, www.dot.state.co.us. Harelson said he would get the new location and the 2005 Environmental Assessment document on the Web site as soon as possible. The 2005 EA and original interchange location were previously on the Web site.
Harelson stated that CDOT would pay all costs of improvements including paving the current roadway from the interchange past the front of the fire station in front of the fire station and Delwood Square.
According to Harelson, the next interchange to be constructed after the Deer Creek interchange will be at Shaffers Crossing north of Pine Junction. That interchange will improve traffic flow to local subdivisions and to Staunton State Park, which is scheduled to open in a couple of years.
Residents asked for another meeting to inform citizens of the final design. Harelson agreed to hold another meeting in Park County at that time.
- Tom Locke contributed to this article.
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