Larimer County Roads 22H and 29 officially reopened today after being closed for over 3 years. The popular roads for cyclists that act as connectors to Highway 34 via Eden Valley had been closed since the flooding on Sept 12th, 2013 heavily damaged both roads. Flatiron Constructors, Inc, who had been granted the bid for repairing the roads by Larimer County had planned to have the roads opened by July and then late Oct of 2016. As the repairs progressed, deeper issues were found that delayed the eventual opening. Actual reconstruction of the roads lasted a year.
Two retaining walls were constructed on 22H, the dirt road that leads up to Highway 34, along with improvements to the roadside drainage and road surface. Rockfall scaling and mitigation work was conducted on the upper cliffs as well.
County Road 29, aka Eden Valley, was completely resurfaced, had drainage improved, guard rails installed and was stabilized and protected with new retaining walls and riprap. Scaling of the rock face to remove loose and/or fragmented rocks by hand or mechanical methods was also performed. The bridge over the Big Thompson, which was relatively new, came out of the flooding unscathed.
The announcement is bittersweet as Highway 34 up to Estes Park is now closed a few miles up the canyon and will remain closed until late May of 2017. Larimer County also announced that County Road 8e that runs directly along the Eastern side of Carter Lake will be closed until Feb 15th 2017 for emergency rockfall hazard mitigation.
Special thanks to Matt Johnson of Larimer County Engineering Department, he has been very responsive to my inquiries during the reconstruction process.
Images from the construction process can be found here:
http://yourgroupride.com/index.php/component/content/article/60-news-and-events/915-eden-valley-opening-delayed-until-oct-2016?Itemid=107
The following photos were taken on Nov 18th as Flatiron Constructors, Inc crews were litterly doing the final sweep of the project.
{oziogallery 571}
