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July 17, 2014 VOLU M E 1 3 | I S SUE 26
LoneTreeVoice.net A publication of
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D O U G L A S C O U N T Y, C O L O R A D O
State works to improve I-25 traffic Through lane leads to larger project aimed at easing highway flow By Jane Reuter
jreuter@coloradocommunitymedia.com Girded for the reality of traffic on Interstate 25, Castle Pines resident Rick Egitto pads 5- to 10-minutes onto what should be a 15-minute daily commute to Inverness. “It’s gotten more and more frustrating,” said Egitto, a commercial real estate agent. “I definitely build in a little more time now.” His Douglas County route is among the Colorado Department of Transportation’s most problematic sections of highway, an area in which the state transit agency plans a series of changes to improve traffic flow. The first of those went into effect July 14 with the opening of a newly striped direct lane designed to keep the left-hand lane of southbound I-25 traffic from County Line Road past RidgeGate Parkway flowing without interruption. The double-white line is intended to keep drivers from moving in and out of the fast lane, allowing drivers whose destination is south of the
RidgeGate exit to pass through the area more quickly. “This hopefully will minimize some of the lane jumping and back-ups caused by people getting on and off the highway,” CDOT spokeswoman Crystal Morgan said. “This is something that works in other states and it’s not costing us a whole lot of money to do. “We simply do not have the funding to keep up with the growth on our roadways. Hopefully this will buy us some time as we look for additional funding and other innovative ways to provide congestion relief.” CDOT will assess the new lane’s success through August, when another I-25 construction project begins. If it saves time and improves traffic flow, they’ll not only continue it there but elsewhere. “This is the test program to see if we want to continue it through the state,” Morgan said. In August, CDOT begins a $32-million project to add an additional lane in each direction of I-25 between Lincoln and County Line. The project will continue through December 2016 and will alleviate the bottlenecks created by traffic merging onto and off of I-25 at both C-470 and Lincoln.
The new I-25 southbound direct lane is designed to keep traffic in the far lane flowing without interruption. The double white line is intended to keep vehicles from crossing the line, as the blue truck in the front of the photo is doing. Photo by Jane Reuter The City of Lone Tree, Park Meadows Metro District and CDOT are among several funding partners involved in the lanebalancing project. “We’ve been involved in the lane-balance program from the very beginning; we’re very supportive of it,” Lone Tree pub-
lic works director John Cotten said. “I-25 has a huge impact on the city. It’s also the lifeblood for our transportation system. We have the distinct benefit of it, and also the responsibility that goes with having really both the interstates — I-25 and C-470.”
Chambers see growing challenges Business organizations fight to stay relevant By Jennifer Smith and Chris Rotar Staff writers
Douglas County employees, such as this one, went through a daylong wildfire training exercise July 9 in Larkspur. Courtesy photo
Crew gets down and dirty Employees learned how to draw fire lines to stop the spread of blazes By Mike DiFerdinando
mdiferdinando@coloradocommunitymedia.com When it comes to stopping the spread of wildfires, dirt can be as important as water. Douglas County spent a day crosstraining its employees to help respond in the event of a wildfire by using bulldozers. On July 9, about a dozen certified members of the county’s heavy-equipment crew from the public works operations staff trained to hone their fire-line cutting skills. A firebreak, or fire line, is a gap in vegetation or other combustible material that acts as a barrier to slow or stop the progress of a bushfire or wildfire. Heavy machinery can be used to move dirt and sand to create a needed gap in
vegetation to stop or slow the progress of a fire. The training took place at the Southern Public Works Operation facility, 11815 Spring Valley Road in Larkspur. The classroom portion of the training was led by Lt. Patrick Richardson of Castle Rock Fire and Rescue’s Wildland Team Coordinator. “The premise of the class was to teach these guys who already know how to use this heavy machinery the finesse and the subtleties of being able to use it to create a fire line and stop and contain the spread of a fire without scaring the earth in the process,” Richardson said. “If we’re not careful with how we put out these fires, we can leave a big scar on the earth that will last for decades. These guys are great at what they do, but we have to teach them the difference between putting out a fire and repaving I-25.” The daylong training was included fire-line safety, basic fire-line construction, simulated evolution, loading equipment transports, simulated dispatches and what chain of command
is expected. “Douglas County and the rest of Colorado is continuing to improve the air resources to fight fires, but any pilot will tell you, air support helps but fires are put out on the ground,” Richardson said. While many think the use of heavy machinery is only needed in the case of large, quick-spreading wildfires, Richardson said that is not the case. “It doesn’t take a big fire to cause a lot of damage. If you have a 4-acre fire that’s backing up to a subdivision, that small fire could easily take out 20 homes,” he said. Heavy machinery can also be used to protect other valuable assets like water resources. Richardson said that the training was a one-off exercise for now, but he would like to see it and other readiness exercises like it become more regular. “Most counties don’t do this kind of training, so we’re ahead of the game. It’s a wonderful use of taxpayer dollars and something that the whole Front Range benefits from,” Richardson said.
The front door to the community isn’t what it used to be. Newcomers to a city or town these days rarely feel the need to stop by the local chamber of commerce to pick up a map or a list of restaurants. “I think the front door to the community is now Google, or whatever your favorite search engine is,” said Dave Kilby, president and CEO of the Western Association of Chamber Executives. Meanwhile, business professionals have more options than ever when it comes to networking — long touted as a major benefit of chamber membership, but something that today can be facilitated with the click of a mouse on sites like Facebook and Meetup.com. And while economic development is still an important role of chambers, it is one they increasingly share with municipalities’ own economic development departments. Chamber continues on Page 12
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