Study: Edwards roundabouts won’t raise noise

EDWARDS, Colorado ” Construction of four new roundabouts around the Edwards, Colorado interchange won’t make the area noisier, according to a Colorado Department of Transportation study.

The department is planning to build four roundabouts in Edwards with money from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. The $11 million project will include a highway underpass and eight-foot-wide sidewalks along most of the new roadway, in addition to the roundabouts.

In 2006, when the department started planning the roundabouts, officials studied whether the finished product would make the area louder. The study determined the noise was coming from Interstate 70.

But after the project was changed slightly ” it originally had three roundabouts ” and got funding from Preisdent Obama’s stimulus plan, a group of Edwards residents, calling themselves the Citizens for Noise Abatement, asked the department to revisit the noise study.

Officials finished taking a second look at the study last week.

“Nothing’s changed,” said Martha Miller, a project manager with the state transportation department. “The noise is from I-70. If I-70 were ever to be widened that would be the appropriate time to look at it.”

The study also concluded building a barrier to block the sound would cost too much.

Steve Lamontagne, who helped coordinate the citizen group, said Monday he hadn’t had a chance to read the department’s new noise study and had no comment on the findings.

Officials are planning to put the project out to bid before the end of the year and are having an open house next week to talk with residents about how and when the roundabouts will be built.

“Our hunch is no daytime lane closures south of the interstate, but that would mean noise at night,” Miller said. “But if there’s someone out there that has a specific concern we want to hear it. It’s not too late to incorporate it.”

Unfortunately, Miller said, construction of the roundabouts will being going on while school is in session.

The project has to be put out to bid in 2009 in order to qualify for the stimulus money.

Staff Writer Chris Outcalt can be reached at 970-748-2931 or coutcalt@vaildaily.com.