Public Meetings

August 3, 2021 Virtual Open House

The project team hosted a virtual open house on August 3 to update stakeholders on the progress of the project

February 16, 2023 Virtual Public Meeting

The project team hosted a virtual public meeting on Feb. 16, 2023 to provide further information on the emergency gates.

Attendees

  • 115 attendees plus 15 panelists

The design does not include any significant curvature removals or grade changes on Colorado Highway 7. The design is aimed to increase safety with minor rock fall mitigation, guardrail improvements, widened shoulders where possible and overall flood damage prevention. The speed limit will be maintained or revised according to CDOT's policy.

The federal funding reserved for this project has requirements and restrictions for the scope of work on which it can be used. Any solutions that CDOT could provide would need to come from a speed study. If requested by the Town of Lyons, CDOT will perform a speed study.  For more information on these speed studies, refer to this CDOT brochure

The blue dots on this overview map indicate the areas where river restoration is planned. CDOT partnered with Colorado Parks and Wildlife to determine these locations based on flood data.

CDOT is working with the US Forest Service and Boulder County to determine which pull offs will be replaced. Recreation pull off areas will be determined in coordination with the US Forest Service.

Unfortunately, no. During the full closure with scheduled openings, crews will work at all times day and night except for when the road is opened to traffic. Crews want to maximize the full closure to get the work done as safely and quickly as possible.

This project is being done entirely with federal emergency flood relief funds.

The scope of this project does not include fire mitigation, however the contractor will take all reasonable precaution to prevent forest fires and shall make every effort to notify a forest official at the first sight of any fires. The contractor, subcontractors, and their employees will prevent and suppress forest fires and provide assistance in this effort as directed by forest officials.

Unfortunately, there is very limited space through the corridor and there is only room for one widened shoulder while maintaining the width of the lanes. The uphill shoulder was chosen because cyclists typically cannot match the speed of motor vehicles, so sharing a lane can cause safety hazards. Cyclists traveling downhill (eastbound) can typically maintain higher speeds.

The daily openings will be decided using the school bus schedules, input from the public and historical heavy travel times. These open hours will be announced at the next round of public meetings in summer 2021.

The highway will be plowed and maintained by a combination of Kiewit crews and CDOT maintenance teams.

Colorado Highway 7 will always be open west of Colorado Highway 72, so there will be no impacts between Ward and Allenspark.

Crews do plan to work on the weekends to finish the work as soon as possible. The project team is coordinating with local communities to minimize impacts on days of large community events.

CDOT Region 4. This region extends from Larimer and Boulder counties to the eastern state border.

Due to the limited space and safety concerns along this corridor, all pull-offs between Lyons and Colorado Highway 72 will be closed during construction.

Not at this time. To maintain the aggressive schedule, crews will work all hours other than the scheduled openings. A mid-day opening would significantly increase the duration of the full closure.

This is something we will coordinate with crews and law enforcement during high-risk months. The project is committed to reducing fire risk and our safety plans have protocols for onsite fire suppression and plans for fire mitigation.

Anyone will be able to travel through the project area during the scheduled openings. There are no restrictions.

The project team is currently coordinating with these companies, but they will be encouraged to use the open hours.

Construction safety plans have protocols for emergency evacuations. In summary, work will be halted and crews will coordinate with local emergency responders to safely and efficiently move traffic through the work area.

CDOT and Kiewit will work with this handful of residents directly. The project is currently gathering data from these property owners on their travel needs and special accommodations will be made to ensure their property access needs are met.

The closure limit is three miles outside of Lyons and the project engineers don’t foresee traffic backups reaching downtown Lyons.

CDOT plans to use variable message boards on several nearby highways to warn drivers well in advance, so they can choose an alternate route before reaching the project.

If there is a situation when crews don’t work, due to weather or any other reason, the highway will be opened to pilot car-controlled traffic and a text notification will be sent. Any additional open hours will be communicated via text, emails, and on the website.

Anyone traveling at a time other than the scheduled openings will need to take one of the detour routes.

CDOT is researching opportunities for fiber installation in conjunction with this project.

Speed limits are still being evaluated throughout the project limits.

River improvements are intended to heal portions of the ecosystem that were damaged by the flood event. CDOT is taking a “let it grow” approach with much of the plant life, and not disrupting revegetation that has already occurred. Other improvements will include revegetation, riffle-pool sequences, channel enhancements and woody debris habitat installation.

River restoration will take place in areas between MM 23.52 and 29.85

Specific locations:

23.52-23.69, 23.85-23.97, 24.05-24.15, 24.7-24.83, 24.95-25.12, 25.21-25.37, 25.49-25.65, 25.65-25.84, 26.12-26.3, 27.05-27.45, 27.83-28.05, 28.47-28.55, 28.63-28.7, 28.7-28.85, 29.04-29.85

Please view this program overview map for a visual of the river restoration locations.

The project is working closely with local agencies to monitor turbidity. Turbidity is a measure of the degree to which the water loses its transparency due to the presence of suspended particulates. When river work is occurring, Kiewit will monitor turbidity and test water quality in multiple locations.

CDOT has a maintenance project planned for 5th Ave Bridge after this project is complete.


To learn more about the project, please review these materials.