{"id":2446978,"date":"2019-07-30T21:04:00","date_gmt":"2019-07-31T03:04:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.aspentimes.com\/news\/public-safety-issues-plage-stillwater-bridge-area-east-of-aspen\/"},"modified":"2019-07-31T09:50:36","modified_gmt":"2019-07-31T15:50:36","slug":"public-safety-issues-plague-stillwater-bridge-area-east-of-aspen","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/local-news\/public-safety-issues-plague-stillwater-bridge-area-east-of-aspen\/","title":{"rendered":"Public safety issues plague Stillwater Bridge area east of Aspen"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n
Jay Morin straps stand-up paddleboards to the top of his SUV alongside Highway 82 Sunday near the Stillwater Bridge take-out for the North Star Nature Preserve.<\/strong>
Anna Stonehouse\/Special to The Aspen Times<\/em><\/figcaption><\/div>\n<\/figure>\n

As the float through the North Star Nature Preserve east of Aspen has become more and more popular, parking and pedestrian issues at the Stillwater Bridge take-out alongside Highway 82 have become more and more chaotic.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was up there the other day to visit a friend and I called the Sheriff\u2019s Office,\u201d Pitkin County Commissioner Patti Clapper said. \u201cPeople were everywhere. They were, like, dazed and glazed and walking in the middle of the road.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was like, \u2018What are you guys doing? Are you crazy?\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

And while Clapper, officials with Pitkin County\u2019s Open Space and Trails program and the Colorado Department of Transportation all agree the situation at Stillwater is problematic and dangerous, there\u2019s no plan to remedy it and practically nothing is currently in place to warn drivers or protect pedestrians.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve seen that use explode as paddleboards have taken off,\u201d said Andrew Knapp, a Glenwood Springs-based engineer with CDOT. \u201cWe\u2019re generally not well positioned to address those rapidly changing uses.\u201d<\/p>\n

The North Star Nature Preserve is owned by the county\u2019s Open Space program, and is the only flat stretch of the Roaring Fork River in the valley. Floating on stand-up paddleboards and other floatation devices from the Wildwood put-in to the Stillwater Bridge take-out has become exponentially more popular in the past few years as both locals and tourists have discovered the preserve\u2019s beauty.<\/p>\n

The first major parking problems associated with North Star occurred a few years ago at the Wildwood put-in, when people repeatedly parked in the fire lane and along the road to Wildwood School. After a ranger was posted at the site in 2016, those issues have mostly dissipated, though parking and unloading at Wildwood can still be challenging.<\/p>\n

The problem at Stillwater Bridge is that it\u2019s bracketed by blind, sharp curves below and above the bridge, which means drivers on the highway have limited sightlines and limited time to react to pedestrians and obstacles in the road, said Pryce Hadley, ranger supervisor for Pitkin County\u2019s Open Space and Trails program.<\/p>\n

Further, there\u2019s not much space on either side of the highway to park at Stillwater, which compounds the safety problems, he said. Finally, floaters on the river are allowed to drink alcohol, which leads to a certain amount of inebriation at the take-out area as well.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s real traffic danger there,\u201d Hadley said. \u201cI think there\u2019s considerable concern. There\u2019s little we can do to keep people from crossing the road.\u201d<\/p>\n

Clapper said people were everywhere when she went through the Stillwater area in the early afternoon on Saturday, July 20.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was concerned someone was going to get hit,\u201d she said. \u201cI\u2019m concerned about public safety.\u201d<\/p>\n

Pitkin County Sheriff Joe DiSalvo said while his office hasn\u2019t received many complaints about the situation, he knows about the congestion and agrees with Clapper.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve always thought it was dangerous,\u201d he said. \u201cI just don\u2019t know what to do about it.\u201d<\/p>\n

A sign warning of pedestrian activity is posted along the highway just below the bridge as drivers head out of Aspen toward Independence Pass, Hadley said. However, the sign is rotated during the winter so drivers can\u2019t see it and has not been rotated back this summer because CDOT changed the sign base so it won\u2019t rotate anymore, he said.<\/p>\n

Hadley said he asked CDOT to find a way to rotate the sign a month ago, but hasn\u2019t heard anything back.<\/p>\n

There are no signs directly above Stillwater Bridge warning drivers coming in to Aspen from Independence Pass of the upcoming pedestrian activity.<\/p>\n

Knapp said Tuesday was the first he\u2019d heard about the sign that wouldn\u2019t rotate. He said he dispatched a maintenance crew to fix the problem.<\/p>\n

Hadley said that if he was able to make immediate changes to the area, he\u2019d install more signs warning of the congested area, possibly trim some trees on the blind curves to improve sightlines and perhaps install a crosswalk at the bridge itself. Improving river-users\u2019 \u201csituational awareness\u201d on the area and the fact that it\u2019s a state highway also is key, he said.<\/p>\n

The problem is the county can\u2019t simply make changes along Highway 82, Clapper said. It\u2019s CDOT\u2019s road, so therefore that agency must be the one to install more signs or lower the speed limit, she said.<\/p>\n

The process for installing more signs is relatively simple and quick, Knapp said. CDOT\u2019s regional traffic unit in Grand Junction will take a look at the area based on Knapp\u2019s request Tuesday and if they agree more signs are necessary, they could be installed in a few weeks, he said.<\/p>\n

Lowering the speed limit is more involved and generally requires a traffic study, which in some cases might even increase the speed limit in an area, Knapp said.<\/p>\n

Hadley urged people to park at the wildlife observation deck parking area less than a quarter mile up the road from Stillwater. The East of Aspen bike\/pedestrian trail connects the two areas, so there\u2019s no need to walk along the highway, he said.<\/p>\n

Lindsey Utter, the Open Space program\u2019s planning and outreach manager, said the parking and safety issues at Stillwater will undoubtedly come up next year when North Star\u2019s management plan is set to be readdressed. That\u2019s when tricky questions like whether there\u2019s not enough parking or whether too many people are using the river at any give time will be discussed on a more in-depth basis, she said.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t think the current situation is ideal and we\u2019re trying to work on solutions,\u201d Utter said. \u201cWe don\u2019t want anyone hurt.\u201d<\/p>\n

jauslander@aspentimes.com<\/a><\/p>\n

via:: The Aspen Times<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Jay Morin straps stand-up paddleboards to the top of his SUV alongside Highway 82 Sunday near the Stillwater Bridge take-out for the North Star Nature Preserve.Anna Stonehouse\/Special to The Aspen Times As the float through the North Star Nature Preserve east of Aspen has become more and more popular, parking and pedestrian issues at the […]<\/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":[49],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-2446978","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-local-news"},"acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-06-24 04:29:35","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":"KSPN The Valley's Quality Rock","distributor_original_site_url":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn","push-errors":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2446978","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2446978"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2446978\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2447001,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2446978\/revisions\/2447001"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2446978"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2446978"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2446978"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}