Eagle County officials celebrate the kickoff of Eagle Valley Trail’s final phase
The last miles are the most complicated — and expensive
Chris Dillmann/Vail Daily
Officials and well-wishers on Tuesday celebrated the kickoff of the final, and most complicated, segment of the Eagle Valley Trail.
The segment, estimated to cost roughly $13 million, will take the trail 1.3 miles, from the Mott’s Landing parking area on the east end of the Horn Ranch open space in Red Canyon, to the west end of the Colorado Department maintenance yard just west of Wolcott.
Getting the trail from one point to the other will require building along steep grades and constructing retaining walls. The phase is just the start of the final 7 miles or so of the trail. Those few miles are going to be difficult and costly.
In her remarks before tossing a celebratory shovelful of dirt, Eagle County Commissioner Jeanne McQueeney noted that officials have known for some time that these last few miles carried a high degree of difficulty.
“I don’t know why we thought they were going to get less expensive,” she said, smiling. Still, she added, “We’re very excited we’re taking this next step forward.”
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Tom Lee, a member of the Great Outdoors Colorado Board of Directors, came for the groundbreaking, along with his wife, Tricia. That organization, funded by proceeds from Colorado Lottery games, has put $7 million into the trail.
“It’s amazing how expensive this is,” Lee said. But, he added, “It’s so important to get this final connection done.”
That final connection is the last link in a mountain trail system that will eventually link Breckenridge to Aspen, a roughly 140-mile off-highway trail system. That system has been decades in the making. Vail resident Dick Cleveland was on hand for the groundbreaking. Cleveland said the trail has been in the planning and construction stages since 1996.
“It’s good to see progress,” Lee said. “This is a big deal.”
Eagle County has put $22 million into the project. In addition to GOCO funding, the project has also received $5 million in federal grant support, as well as support from other state and local sources.
Robin Thompson, who’s leading a private fundraising effort, said that the effort is now about $1 million short of its original $38 million goal. But that amount includes public funds and was originally going to cover the entire cost of the trail. That cost has since exploded, and questions remain about just where those last few miles will go.
Project manager Kevin Sharkey said Tuesday it looks like contracts will be signed this year to take the trail from the state maintenance yard to the intersection of U.S. Highway 6 and the Intersection of State Highway 131. But the last 4 miles or so remain in question.
Sharkey said one idea, to take the trail across a proposed residential development east of Wolcott, probably won’t work due to timing. That means taking the trail along the north side of Highway 6.
Then there’s what Sharkey called the “Cordillera challenge.”
A few years ago, county officials had a handshake agreement to run the trail across open space owned by Cordillera. That agreement no longer exists.
“We’re ready to move on,” Sharkey said Tuesday. That means pursuing an agreement to put the trail in the right-of-way owned by the Union Pacific Railroad.
Whatever the ultimate route is, “We’re going to keep going east,” Sharkey said.
