{"id":2451653,"date":"2019-11-27T21:52:00","date_gmt":"2019-11-28T04:52:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.aspentimes.com\/news\/future-changes-to-aspen-roundabout-on-citys-shoulders\/"},"modified":"2019-11-27T21:52:00","modified_gmt":"2019-11-28T04:52:00","slug":"future-changes-to-aspen-roundabout-on-citys-shoulders","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/local-news\/future-changes-to-aspen-roundabout-on-citys-shoulders\/","title":{"rendered":"Future changes to Aspen roundabout on city\u2019s shoulders"},"content":{"rendered":"
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If any significant changes are made to the Aspen roundabout, the lion\u2019s share of costs will be the responsibility of the city government, according to the Colorado Department of Transportation.<\/p>\n

Andrew Knapp, CDOT\u2019s resident engineer who is assigned to Highway 82, said the state agency had planned to do an \u201casphalt mill and fill\u201d project in the traffic circle in 2022.<\/p>\n

But city engineers expressed a desire to put a concrete surface around it to prevent massive potholes, which occurred this past winter when traffic was at its heaviest.<\/p>\n

That big blowout is what started the conversation between CDOT and the city, Knapp said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe had a basic surface project but now with this partnership, the city would reconstruct the surface with concrete and we are going to contribute what it would cost for the asphalt,\u201d he said. \u201cThere will be no change to the geometry and lanes.\u201d<\/p>\n

The city is considering a $100,000 consultant study<\/a> on traffic patterns surrounding the roundabout in advance of the work in 2022.<\/p>\n

Engineers would be looking at ways to improve traffic circulation in what is one of the busiest roundabouts in the state.<\/p>\n

CDOT rates it a \u201cD\u201d in level of service (LOS), which is defined as the relationship between roadway volume and roadway capacity, according to Pete Rice with the city\u2019s engineering office.<\/p>\n

\u201cLOS D is defined as lanes being almost full with delay,\u201d Rice wrote in an email. \u201cWe had a presentation once from a traffic engineer working on a traffic impact study on Maroon Creek Road who stated the roundabout congestion could be considered an F, but \u2026 we don\u2019t have the data to prove anything and CDOT considers the corridor a D.\u201d<\/p>\n

The traffic study would provide that data, which could lead to improvements such as roundabout metering signals that would alternate cars entering the traffic circle from Maroon and Castle creeks.<\/p>\n

Changes like that would entirely be up to the city, Knapp said, acknowledging that CDOT is underfunded.<\/p>\n

And the idea is that whatever changes would occur, they would be done when the surface work is happening.<\/p>\n

Aspen\u2019s roundabout was built in 2001 when the concept was fairly new to traffic engineers.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf we had to do it all over again, we would have done it differently,\u201d Knapp said, adding that the Aspen roundabout was uniquely designed with a crown so the inside lane drains into the center and the outside lane drains away from the circle.<\/p>\n

Carbondale\u2019s roundabout is one of the newest designed and built, and serves as a good example of how a traffic circle should function, Knapp said.<\/p>\n

There is just one circulating lane, and it is wide and defined for motorists entering it, he added.<\/p>\n

CDOT just repainted Aspen\u2019s roundabout to give motorists more direction on how to exit the circle.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s because drivers are hesitant to move into the outside lane for fear that those entering from the west will cut them off or hit them so they stay in the inside lane until it is time to exit.<\/p>\n

A solid yellow line now delineates two lanes, with dotted lines painted coming off the inside one to signal motorists to move into the outside lane if they are planning to exit onto Maroon Creek or Castle Creek roads.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe put the well-thought-about repainted lines in there,\u201d Knapp said. \u201cThe median spiral pushes you to the outside and is meant to reduce the conflicts between the exiting traffic and the entering traffic.\u201d<\/p>\n

Also on CDOT\u2019s agenda for Highway 82 is resurfacing the road in Snowmass Canyon.<\/p>\n

Knapp said he was able to get that project, which was on CDOT\u2019s 10-year plan, on the short list for 2023.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat has been a big priority for me,\u201d he said. \u201cI consider that a big win.\u201d<\/p>\n

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

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

If any significant changes are made to the Aspen roundabout, the lion\u2019s share of costs will be the responsibility of the city government, according to the Colorado Department of Transportation. Andrew Knapp, CDOT\u2019s resident engineer who is assigned to Highway 82, said the state agency had planned to do an \u201casphalt mill and fill\u201d project […]<\/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":["post-2451653","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","category-local-news"],"acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-08-19 04:30:27","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\/2451653","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=2451653"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2451653\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2451653"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2451653"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2451653"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}