Opening Rollins Pass - Meeting Feb 13

[alexb]

Found this. Thought there might be interest here.

ATTENTION ALL MEMBERS - ESPECIALLY BOULDER COUNTY RESIDENTS!

The Boulder County Commissioners have scheduled a public hearing for Thursday, February 13 beginning at 5 pm in the Hearing Room on the Third Floor of the Boulder County Courthouse.
The purpose of the hearing is to take public testimony on opening the Rollins Pass Road. This testimony will give the Board important information regarding support for the reopening of the road and will help better define impacts associated with this proposal.
All are more than welcome to attend and participate. The hearing will also be webcast live and will be achieved for viewing at a later time. The website for watching the hearing is:http://www.bouldercounty.org/gov/mee.../hearings.aspx

Source: http://moffatroad.org/

At the moffatroad site, there is a needles eye survey which is a picture heavy pdf that shows the current state of the tunnel and gives a ~$450,000 price tag on making the tunnel safe again.

[ExplorerTom]

Interesting. This would help to make this trail worthwhile if it connected east and west together.

[Tom]

I'd love to see it reopened. I remember traveling it with my family as a.child in the late 50's early 60's. That said almost, 1/2 million for the tunnel only, seems a bit steep for Boulder County to absorb. Perhaps if it's paid for by donations or a toll system.

[otisdog]

And you could hit Jenny Creek on the way up or down the east side.
Jim

[javaman34]

Has Rollins Pass been closed? I know the tunnel is because of the so called cave-in. I looked in the tunnel a few years ago and it is stuffed with rail road ties and chain link fence. Kind of a weird cave-in.

[Tom]

javaman34 previously posted:

[javaman34]

Tom previously posted:

[ExplorerTom]

There's hiking trails that go up and over the tunnel.

Another option: keep the tunnel closed and put a 4wd trail in that goes over the pass, near the tunnel, that connects both sides.

Im not not really sure why a tunnel is there anyway. Why didn't they just blast it clear? It's got to be one of the shortest RR tunnels ever made.

[Jim]

How much to simply bulldoze the "roof" off of the Needles Eye tunnel and call it done?!?!

Yes, I'd like it to remain a tunnel, but for the $$$$$$, might another option be more "reasonable".

[The StRanger]

I would love to do that trail !!

[Hypoid]

Jim previously posted:

[Starkman]

A good motorcycle friend of mine is heading this movement, with the historic railroad group. He is friends with one of the commissioners so this has the best chance so far. I'm going to the meeting with a bunch of dirtbike guys and I ask everyone to be there. Rich

[trailfiend]

That sounds fun! It would be great if Boulder and Park counties could share the expense burden, as businesses in both counties would likely see benefits to having the connection trail fully open between the two. Either way, opened tunnel, 4x4 trail around it, I would love to see that pass open; when I come home from riding Winter Park in the summer, that would be a fun detour, especially because I'd be near the top pre-sunset...likely with camera.

I know the roof of that tunnel is rather large, but from my days of blowing up rocks to build trails for JeffCo, that with an extremely large drill and some small explosives, the roof of that tunnel can be manageably removed without destroying the surrounding terrain by blasting away small chunks gradually until the tunnel becomes a small "canyon". It's not hard, nor should it take long, with proper, even hand-operated drilling equipment, a small crew could get through that project in a small period of time. A month or two.

[Jim]

BUMP - Today is meeting day.

Thursday, February 13 beginning at 5 pm in the Hearing Room on the Third Floor of the Boulder County Courthouse.

[alexb]

Not sure if I can make this tonight. If anyone does go, I'd love to see a reply with the details of how it goes.

[Brucker]

I plan on making it tonight. Anyone else?

[Brucker]

alexb previously posted:

[Starkman]

Brucker previously posted:

[Brucker]

Starkman previously posted:

[Jim]

If they have not brought up the idea and if there's an option to ask the question... Please ask why to not convert the tunnel into a trench / remove the "roof".