Summer traffic in ski towns

[Tricia]

This notice on the Facebook page of the Aspen Police Department had me thinking about how much stress is put on the infrastructure of ski towns in the summer with the change in tourism and road construction.

Notice from Aspen Police Dept:
We hear pretty regularly about what people think of traffic. Later this week, we're sure to hear about it some more.

CDOT (that's the Colorado Department of Transportation), has decided that Aspen will be the recommended detour route for I70 traffic on Wednesday and Thursday this week. That's when the stretch of highway through Glenwood Canyon will be completely and totally CLOSED.

Yes, you got that right, I70. As in "Interstate 70." And "closed," which if you study the original Greek language you'll find an original word that means "closed."

So what we're trying to say is, well, we're sorry, in advance. It's just for two days (we sincerely hope that they are right when they say that). Maybe this would be a good last-minute time for a Moab trip, or something. 110 degrees might be easier to bear than traffic.

We'll do our best to keep it flowing, but it's gonna be hard fitting the entire Colorado River through the drinking straw that is Highway 82 through town.

From the official press release:
"ALTERNATE ROUTES/TRAFFIC IMPACTS FOR PASSENGER VEHICLES:

"Front Range motorists/Summit County/westbound motorists
Take CO 91(Copper/Leadville – I-70 Exit 195) to US 24 (Buena Vista) north on CO 82 (Independence Pass/Aspen) to Glenwood Springs. This route is recommended only for vehicles under 35 feet in length. This route is very scenic and approximately two miles longer. Independence Pass has a vehicle length restriction in place of 35 feet." And there will be so much traffic that you will probably hate every minute of it.

Ok, we added the last sentence ourselves, CDOT didn't write that. But we bet they thought it.

The Aspen Police Department - Protecting the Wild West since 1880.

 

[Philpug]

We see it here in Tahoe since that lake of ours draws a fair amount visitors. I read Jackson Hole gets 4X the traffic and visitors in the summer than the winter.

 

[Lorenzzo]

Three seasons ago summer traffic through PC was very light and appeared to be construction workers as much as tourists. Each year however it's been increasing. Despite the increases it's still easy to drive around but you'll have plenty of company.

SLC averages 6 days per year over 100 deg. They expect 6 this week. PC is 14 degrees cooler and 40 minutes away. Not hard to figure out what that means in terms of traffic.

 

[Jilly]

Visitors to Tremblant in the summer is something like 4X winter. And I thought winter was bad! Add its bicycles, motorbikes, walkers and runners.....on 2 lane roads that twist and turn....one the reasons I stay away!

 

[scott43]

Same with cottage country. We have friends in Port Carling and their little town goes from 500 people in the winter to 5000 in the summer. Just unreal. It's funny when you live there and see the difference in the grocery store between February and July. In a not funny kinda way. Having said that, it brings in a whole lot of money and jobs.

 

[fatbob]

Been to Jackson a couple of times in summer. Found traffic surprisingly reasonable if you know how to bypass Town Square. And you can park at Teton Village for free!. Tahoe traffic is bad enough in winter - can't imagine dealing with the Tahoe City Y or Kings Beach in full touron season.

 

[Don in Morrison]

This notice on the Facebook page of the Aspen Police Department had me thinking about how much stress is put on the infrastructure of ski towns in the summer with the change in tourism and road construction.

Notice from Aspen Police Dept:
We hear pretty regularly about what people think of traffic. Later this week, we're sure to hear about it some more.

CDOT (that's the Colorado Department of Transportation), has decided that Aspen will be the recommended detour route for I70 traffic on Wednesday and Thursday this week. That's when the stretch of highway through Glenwood Canyon will be completely and totally CLOSED.

Yes, you got that right, I70. As in "Interstate 70." And "closed," which if you study the original Greek language you'll find an original word that means "closed."

So what we're trying to say is, well, we're sorry, in advance. It's just for two days (we sincerely hope that they are right when they say that). Maybe this would be a good last-minute time for a Moab trip, or something. 110 degrees might be easier to bear than traffic.

We'll do our best to keep it flowing, but it's gonna be hard fitting the entire Colorado River through the drinking straw that is Highway 82 through town.

From the official press release:
"ALTERNATE ROUTES/TRAFFIC IMPACTS FOR PASSENGER VEHICLES:

"Front Range motorists/Summit County/westbound motorists
Take CO 91(Copper/Leadville – I-70 Exit 195) to US 24 (Buena Vista) north on CO 82 (Independence Pass/Aspen) to Glenwood Springs. This route is recommended only for vehicles under 35 feet in length. This route is very scenic and approximately two miles longer. Independence Pass has a vehicle length restriction in place of 35 feet." And there will be so much traffic that you will probably hate every minute of it.

Ok, we added the last sentence ourselves, CDOT didn't write that. But we bet they thought it.

The Aspen Police Department - Protecting the Wild West since 1880.

Gonna be big trouble if there is any eastbound traffic on Independence pass. (If you've been that way, you know why.)

 

[Jilly]

Same with cottage country. We have friends in Port Carling and their little town goes from 500 people in the winter to 5000 in the summer. Just unreal. It's funny when you live there and see the difference in the grocery store between February and July. In a not funny kinda way. Having said that, it brings in a whole lot of money and jobs.

Same thing in Picton, Ontario or Northbrook! And the grocery store in Northbrook carries more "city" stuff during the summer. So if you shrimp in February, bring it with you.

I guess except for this detour, all recreational places have their "season".

 

[Jeff N]

Holy Jesus. Routing I-70 traffic on CO-82 is a Colossally. Bad. Idea. Independence Pass has SINGLE LANE sections on it.

I can't even imagine I-70 traffic on that. It is bad enough as it is without cross country traffic.

Cottonwood Pass (Not the one West of Buena Vista, the one between Gypsum and Glenwood) is the way to go when the canyon is closed, and it closes for a few days almost every year. This route is a graded dirt road.

Given that Glenwood Canyon closes almost every year (usually due to rockslides), CDOT should really suck it up and pave Cottonwood so they have an alternate route that doesn't add 4 hours (US 40).

 

[KevinF]

I've heard Stowe, Vermont is busier in the summer than it is in the winter. @epic , is that true?

I've been told the best part of April and May in Stowe is that all the tourists leave for a while and the locals get to enjoy their town.

 

[Don in Morrison]

There's a major construction project going on in Glenwood adjacent to the existing ancient bridge over the Colorado River. I don't know yet if they are widening the old bridge or gradually replacing it or what. All I know is that it's always been mighty claustrophobic driving over that thing for as long as I can remember.

 

[Philpug]

No major construction around Tahoe, it has been nice.

 

[Don in Morrison]

I just looked it up. They are replacing the old Grand Avenue Bridge with a new one that curves in from the west side. It'll be interesting to see how they handle traffic while they disconnect the old bridge and connect the new one. I don't wanna have to be driving it during that time, though. I'll get to have a closer look this weekend when Mrs. Claystone and I will be in the area vacationing.

 

[Jeff N]

I just looked it up. They are replacing the old Grand Avenue Bridge with a new one that curves in from the west side. It'll be interesting to see how they handle traffic while they disconnect the old bridge and connect the new one. I don't wanna have to be driving it during that time, though. I'll get to have a closer look this weekend when Mrs. Claystone and I will be in the area vacationing.

That bridge is a case study in functional obsolescence. It predates I-70 and was not designed to have a 4 lane expressway underneath. This means bridge supports are immediately outside the expressway lanes and the right accident could impact one and bring the entire bridge down. As the bridge crosses both the expressway and the river, and tends to have lots of traffic backed up and standing on the bridge, you could have an interstate accident collapse the bridge and bring down 20+ vehicles crossing the bridge both over the highway and river. Yikes.

An immense amount of money was spent on building I-70 through there, and I am really surprised that as part of that giant pile of money, a comparative drop in the bucket could not be found to replace the bridge. I-70 through Glenwood was being completed in the late 1960's early 1970's (Side Note- the movie Vanishing Point, released in 1971 has an extended car chase sequence shot during construction of I-70 through Glenwood and Rifle, including the No Name tunnels). East of the No Name exit, construction of the rest of the canyon was not completed until 1992.

At some point in the history of the bridge, they decided to double lane Grand Ave over the bridge. The bridge deck isn't at all wide enough, so has something like 8' lanes. I would love to know who approved that variance.

As for traffic while the bridge is getting rebuilt, I am sure a detour will follow Midland Ave on the West side of town. During "rush hour," this is commonly a faster way to get to CO-82 Southbound, crossing the Roaring Fork at either 8th or 27th.

 

[Jeff N]

Speaking of insufficient bridges on CO-82, another noteworthy one was recently decommissioned- the CO-82 Maroon Creek bridge just outside Aspen.

That's a picture of the bridge as built for the Colorado Midland Railroad. The bridge was constructed in 1888.

The railroad stopped operating in 1918, and track was torn up in 1921. Albert Carlton was the last owner of the railroad. He donated almost the entire right of way to the state of Colorado for Highway Development, save for the tunnel under the divide on Hagerman Pass (between Leadville and Basalt) that he kept and operated by toll- thus ensuring the state maintained a highway right to his tunnel that would otherwise be worthless.

The State of Colorado turned the Maroon Creek Bridge into a highway bridge. A road deck was constructed, but the bridge itself was not changed. You can see the original supports in this picture, and the additional V-shaped supports to balance the greater width of the highway vs. the original railroad track.

The deck was ALSO intended for 1 traffic lane in each direction, but was ALSO re-purposed to have two insufficiently narrow lanes. I suspect the same party approved the cramming of additional lanes on both of these bridges.

The Maroon Creek bridge now carries bike and pedestrian traffic. A new bridge was completed in 2008.

 

[Mike King]

Aspen was plenty busy this weekend. I drove up over Independence Pass on Wednesday afternoon and made it over just before it was closed because of a hostage situation. http://www.denverpost.com/2016/07/28/colorado-springs-man-arrested-hostage-aspen/ I was shocked at how busy Aspen was -- it is now busier in the summer than the winter. As the saying goes, come for the skiing, stay for the summer...

Mike

 

[Tricia]

No major construction around Tahoe, it has been nice.

I heard there are some traffic issues from construction on 28 between Kings Beach and Tahoe City, but I haven't been down that way.
I also heard that there is something going on 89 between Alpine Meadows and Tahoe city. Again, I'm not sure because we haven't been down that way.

 

[Lorenzzo]

This weekend traffic here will increase as the final stage of the Tour of Utah bike race ends in Park City. Bike traffic that is.

It's ridiculous what some humans can do on a bike.

 

[Don in Morrison]

This weekend traffic here will increase as the final stage of the Tour of Utah bike race ends in Park City. Bike traffic that is.

It's ridiculous what some humans can do on a bike.

More ridiculous than what they can do on skis?

 

[Lorenzzo]

More ridiculous than what they can do on skis?

Yes. In skiing while for sure talent separates, it's less quantifiable in pure physical terms and there are other dominant factors such as risk taking and strategy. I'm less able to perceive differences in talent and skill in skiing from the elite and some of those I know and with whom I've skied.

With cycling, when you look at the numbers posted at the Tour de France and that will post at the Tour of Utah, you can quantify the separation between the elite and those with whom I've rubbed elbows and it's enormous.