Thoughts on the By-Pass? Cast Your Website Vote

Granada/Holly Overpass

By an almost three to one margin, a non-scientific survey on the City of Lamar website, shows people favoring the construction of a by-pass or reliever route as it’s now termed, around the City of Lamar.  General discussion on the pros and cons for a bypass has been held around Lamar for almost 30 years.  Some feel the absence of truck traffic is what’s needed to help revive the downtown shopping district.  Others believe that once the traffic is re-routed away from the city, no one will bother to visit downtown if most of the stores relocate to the bypass to catch all the cars.  The two-lane proposed route will attach to Highway 287/385 south of Spreading Antlers Golf Course, offer a connector street to Lake Road off Memorial Drive to provide access to Prowers Medical Center, cut across Highway 50 East, to the east of Wal-mart and re-emerge onto Highway 287/385 just past the KLMR curve. 

The City of Lamar has installed a polling site on its website that asks two questions…”Do you favor the construction of an alternate truck route for U.S. Highways 287/50 at the City of Lamar?” and “Would you still favor construction of the Truck Route if the City of Lamar were required to provide matching funds to complete the project?” 

As of late Friday afternoon, June 21, 178 people responded to the first question in favor of the alternate route by 129 to 49.  The second question had 172 responses with 81 in favor and 91 opposed to the city providing matching funds for the construction costs.  The poll will only be available for a limited time and will provide the city council with a general, non-scientific count on the mood of the public.  The polling website is available at www.ci.lamar.co.us. 

Overpass View Traveling East

Paul Westhoff, resident engineer for CDOT in the Lamar area, said that the EIS or Environmental Impact Study is drawing to a close and he anticipates there will be a finding of no significant impact.  The EIS will help engineers determine the design and construction for the Reliever Route as it connects to Highways 287 and 50.  Future public hearings will be held to bring the community up to date on the latest plans and afford residents an opportunity to make written recommendations to CDOT.  There is a limited window of financial opportunity to fund the construction.  A new concept now channels most of the construction costs upfront instead of in annual payments as the bypass is completed in sections.  There is a by-in from the city and county for matching funds and those details still need to be worked out.  Westhoff spoke with CDOT officials in Pueblo late last week and said he plans to meet with City of Lamar and Prowers County representatives before the end of the month to brief them on the latest developments. 

Another construction project is moving ahead.  Westhoff said CDOT plans to construct a new railroad overpass along Highway 50 between Granada and Holly.  Advertising for construction should go out by November, he said and if everything stays on schedule, he anticipates construction of the new overpass to begin in the spring of 2014.  “Travelers will see a flattening of the curves leading into the new overpass,” he explained, adding, “The new overpass will have a western alignment compared to the present one.”  Westhoff said it will be easier to build the new overpass while motorists are still using the current bridge.  Once the new one is complete, the old overpass will simply be decommissioned.

By Russ Baldwin