Residents help engineers become street-wise about Sutton Trail project

Jeffco designers and planners came up the hill to Conifer to present the proposed Sutton Trail project to the public, and they came away with input from area residents.

Concerns included parking, an access ramp to the Aspen Park Community Center, speeding cars and safety.

“We got all the ground-level details about the area,” Jefferson County transportation planner Will Kerns said.

The meeting, held recently at West Jefferson Middle School, drew about 40 residents.

Sutton Road is a two-lane paved road with residences, commercial businesses, a small wetland and open meadow along it. The trail will be built on the north side of Sutton Road from Wolff Avenue to Davis Avenue.

The concrete trail will be 4 feet wide with a 4-foot-wide concrete shoulder. Funded by the Conservation Trust Fund, the approximate cost of the 3,111-foot-long project is $600,000.

Jeffco transportation engineer Brent Soderlin said he was still working on the trail design, and the county will send out bid requests in mid-May. Construction could begin as early as mid-June and be completed in about 90 days.

The first phase of construction will be the storm/sewer system, designed to keep water off the trail with a series of inlets and pipes, some of which are already in place along Sutton Road.

Resident concerns

“(The residents) see things I don’t see and that we don’t come across very often,” Kerns said. “They just gave me details on every hill and dip on this road.”

Soderlin said he wanted to consult with engineers in the traffic department to discuss parking at the community center. Currently, those using the community center park on the road.

A design for a ramp leading to the community center will be incorporated into the trail project, but the specific plans haven’t been designed yet, said Soderlin.

Sid Jacobson, a 50-year resident of “the park,” as he calls it, isn’t really against the project, he’s more concerned about speeding along the road and the population explosion he’s seen in the last half-century.

The speed limit on Sutton Road is 20 mph, and several residents said motorists rarely obey the law.

Jacobson suggested to Kerns that speed bumps or one-way traffic on the road might help slow vehicles. He also doesn’t like that, because the trail won’t have any curbs, the road will be even with the trail.

The design will make it easier for snow removal crews to clear the road in the winter, according to Kerns.

Kerns said a possible answer to the speeding problem could be placing rumble strips in the dip between the road and the trail.

“If you cross (onto the trail) in your car, you’ll feel it and know you’re on the trail,” Kerns said. But he admits that wouldn’t provide the same barrier that a curb would.

Jacobson said, “When it’s snowing, how do you know where the sidewalk is?”

He did like that the Jeffco representatives arranged the meeting with the community so people could offer feedback on the design.

“You don’t go to the university and say, ‘Design this.’ You come to the community and say, ‘Design this,’ ” Jacobson said.

Ken Gerbrandt has lived in Conifer for nine years and loves the project. After all, he walks that road nearly every day.

“It’s great for people, great for Aspen Park, and we’re showing there’s progress being made,” Gerbrandt said.

Contact Barbara Ford at barbara@evergreenco.com or 303-350-1043. Check www.HighTimberTimes.com for updates.