{"id":803143,"date":"2020-01-16T14:00:00","date_gmt":"2020-01-16T21:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.summitdaily.com\/?p=377396"},"modified":"2020-01-16T14:00:00","modified_gmt":"2020-01-16T21:00:00","slug":"letter-to-the-editor-wildernest-drivers-must-be-considered-in-on-ramp-redesign","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/local-news\/letter-to-the-editor-wildernest-drivers-must-be-considered-in-on-ramp-redesign\/","title":{"rendered":"Letter to the editor: Wildernest drivers must be considered in on-ramp redesign"},"content":{"rendered":"<div><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn.summitdaily.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2019\/06\/LettersWebCard-SDN1.jpg\" class=\"ff-og-image-inserted\"><\/div>\n<p>Part of the traffic problem\/gridlock in Silverthorne is due to excess traffic coming out of Wildernest to westbound Interstate 70, clogging up Colorado Highway 9 and the westbound I-70 on-ramp as well as the steep I-70 westbound lanes.<\/p>\n<p>It can be removed from this area entirely by creating a traffic circle\/ westbound on-ramp next to the Wildernest center. By moving the westbound I-70 lanes into the present median closer to the eastbound lanes from Highway 9 to the scenic overlook, this creates the flat land on the westbound shoulder needed for the new on-ramp. Yes, a short bridge would need to be constructed from Wildernest Road to the I-70 road shoulder, but the major terrain obstacle of where to put the on-ramp due to the present drop-off on the side of the westbound lanes would be solved.<\/p>\n<p>This takes a lot of traffic off the steep westbound on-ramp and also removes it from the backup on Wildernest Road stretching from Highway 9 all the way to the Wildernest Road\/Buffalo Drive intersection in front of Lowes.<\/p>\n<p>It also makes the traffic entering I-70 safer by entering where I-70 is steeper and traffic is slower than at the flatter section where the present on-ramp is.<\/p>\n<p>It also reduces air pollution from eliminating vehicles having to drive downhill from the Wildernest center to the Highway 9 on-ramp then reverse direction and travel back uphill to where they came from adding excess mileage to their drive.<\/p>\n<p>The Colorado Department of Transportation has resisted this idea previously, but it really doesn\u2019t have a realistic solution to the present-day gridlock without doing this.<\/p>\n<p>This plan needs to be part of the answer because the present traffic problem requires removing some traffic in addition to redesigning the intersection itself.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.summitdaily.com\/opinion\/letter-to-the-editor-wildernest-drivers-must-be-considered-in-on-ramp-redesign\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">via:: Summit Daily<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Part of the traffic problem\/gridlock in Silverthorne is due to excess traffic coming out of Wildernest to westbound Interstate 70, clogging up Colorado Highway 9 and the westbound I-70 on-ramp as well as the steep I-70 westbound lanes. It can be removed from this area entirely by creating a traffic circle\/ westbound on-ramp next to [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[99],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-803143","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-local-news"},"acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-07-25 23:58:12","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"distributor_meta":false,"distributor_terms":false,"distributor_media":false,"distributor_original_site_name":"KSMT The Mountain","distributor_original_site_url":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt","push-errors":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/803143","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=803143"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/803143\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=803143"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=803143"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=803143"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}