I made it through downtown Pagosa Springs yesterday morning — Monday, March 24 — without hitting a single orange cone.
Not everyone was so lucky. Or maybe they were trying to hit the cones?
I had a scheduled meeting to attend at 10am — a meeting of water district board members at the Running Iron Ranch, north of town — so I left my downtown house and took Lewis Street instead of Highway 160, thinking I could avoid the “cone zone” where traffic might be challenging…
Much to my surprise, Lewis Street and its side streets were almost devoid of parked cars, even though all of the parking along Highway 160 had been eliminated that morning (and for the remainder of the construction season). Feeling curious, I hung a right on 2nd Street to drive through the construction zone, and found the traffic moving smoothly past the traffic cones and workers.
Most of the “traffic cones” were not cones, however. They were “vertical traffic panels”…
… which, I believe, hold up better to being run over.
I hear that today, the highway contractor WW Clyde might begin installing concrete barriers to keep the traffic on the south half of the highway, so they can begin milling… and then tearing up… the north half.
Some construction projects make use of plastic barriers, but concrete barriers no doubt provide better protection for workers. Not necessarily for drivers, however. According to the Bureau of Transportation Statistics, most of the people killed in highway work zone accidents are drivers or passengers, followed by pedestrians and bicyclists. Relatively few of the fatalities are workers.
I left our meeting at the Running Iron Ranch and headed home around noon, and saw that a double yellow line had been striped on the south side of the highway, with east-bound traffic now driving through what was once the on-street parking lane.
Speaking of parking. The Town of Pagosa Springs has been working diligently to ensure alternative parking in the downtown core, and CDOT (Colorado Department of Transportation) sent out a map yesterday showing the “public” parking lots in the business area. In the graph below, the orange icons indicate public lots. The blue icons indicate Mountain Express Transit (MET) bus stops.
I presume this map will be made available throughout downtown in the coming weeks.
The largest parking lots are:
- Just west of the Ruby Sisson Library
- At the Bell Tower
- At the base of Reservoir Hill Park
- Just south of Bank of the San Juans, near the Post Office
Heading home, I hung a right onto 4th Street (which will soon be closed to through traffic, I understand) and parked in front of The Peak Deli sandwich shop. Peeking in the window, the deli appeared packed with customers.
I crossed the street and walked into Goodman’s Department Store — our oldest downtown business, run by the Goodman family since 1899 — and asked one of the clerks how their business was holding up on the first morning of the highway construction, and with the on-street parking eliminated. She told me they’d had plenty of business all morning.
Bob Goodman — who ran the store for many years before his daughter Haley took the reigns — was instrumental in getting the Town to maintain the public parking lot on the opposite side of the highway, along the San Juan River. As I recall.
I peeked in the window of The Rose restaurant, next door, and it looked like about half the tables were occupied. As mentioned, it was noon, and I was surprised that the lunch hour wasn’t more busy.
From yesterday’s CDOT email:
The US 160 Pagosa Springs reconstruction project kicked off today. These first couple of days of activity will mostly involve mobilization of traffic control devices and equipment.
The 2nd and 4th Street intersections on the northside of US 160 will be closed beginning tonight, Monday, March 24 and will remain closed until utility and drainage work is complete. Pedestrian crosswalks at these intersections will remain open. Pedestrian crosswalks will be open at 1st, 3rd and 4th Streets. Mid-block crossings between 4th and 5th will be closed, but the crosswalk at 5th Street will remain open
Starting Tuesday, concrete barriers to delineate the work zone from the two-way traffic will be installed. Once the concrete barrier is in place, eastbound drivers will have a left-turn lane going north onto Lewis Street. Westbound drivers will have a left-turn lane going south onto Hot Springs Blvd and 8th and 10th Streets.
Please be alert when you are traveling through the new traffic configuration or visiting the downtown businesses, as heavy equipment will be frequently moving throughout the project limits.
You can learn more — but not really very much more — at the Project website.
At a music rehearsal on Sunday, my band mates were discussing the possible alternative routes that local residents might be taking to avoid the construction zone.
Based on my experience on the “first day” of the Project, I expect traffic to move smoothly through town, and people will find very little need for alternative routes. The Town seems to have arranged plenty of parking options, within a couple of blocks of the business district. Our main downtown grocery store, Natural Grocers, has its own large parking lot.
When I first heard about this project, I had depressing visions of downtown Pagosa businesses drying up and blowing away in the wind.
Maybe that won’t happen, after all. Maybe we will make this whole thing work.
But of course, yesterday was only “Day One”.
