Local Project Wins Award of "Global" Proportions

Seeking a mail route from the gold camps west, Captain E. L. Berthoud, a pioneer civil engineer from Golden, is credited with discovering the 11,307-foot pass on May 10, 1861. Over 140 years later, the area now called “Berthoud Pass” is winning awards.

The ARTBA Transportation Development Foundation's fourth annual “Globe Awards” were presented last Fall during ARTBA's Annual Conference. The “Globe Awards” recognize highway, road and airport improvement projects from Colorado to Connecticut that contribute to environmental protection and mitigation.

In 1998, ARTBA established the “Globe Awards” to recognize private sector firms and public sector agencies that do an outstanding job in protecting and/or enhancing the natural environment in the planning, design and construction of U.S. transportation infrastructure; and to recognize transportation construction-related product manufacturers and material suppliers that utilize exemplary environmental processes to protect and enhance the natural environment.

The Berthoud Pass Mountain Access Project in Clear Creek County won a “Globe Award” in the Highway category. The Berthoud Pass Project, located in the Arapahoe National Forest, was designed to provide additional capacity on a highly used corridor, enhance traffic safety, and correct environmental damage caused by previous roadway construction practices and road sanding operations. Retaining walls were widely utilized to reduce the impact on the forest and to control the erosion resulting from steep cut slopes. The judges recognized the project, designed by J.F. Sato & Associates, of Littleton, for achieving the objectives of increasing road capacity, while preserving and enhancing an environmentally sensitive corridor.

The Colorado Department of Transportation provided a few fun facts related to the project. Widening three miles of the Berthoud Pass Mountain Access Project included the following.

• Approximately 27,000 square meters of colored walls were installed in areas requiring cuts and fills; enough to build a wall 10-feet high and 5½ miles long.

• It took approximately 200,000 cubic meters of excavation earthwork; equal to 3,244 railroad coal cars.

• It took approximately 160,000 meters of embankment fill; equaling 2,595 railroad coal cars.

• Approximately 9,200 linear meters (5.7 miles) of concrete barrier were used.

• The amount of asphalt used, 39,000 metric tons, could have paved a bicycle path, 4-feet wide and 3 inches thick, from Downtown Denver to Granby.

• Two underground animal tunnels were included. The crossing at Floral Park is 250 feet long, 8 feet high and 6 feet wide. The crossing near a Hoop Creek tributary is 100 feet long, 6 feet high and 4 feet wide.

• All project areas were re-vegetated, including new and old highway cuts. That includes 5,700 new plantings (trees, shrubs and groundcover) and enough seedings to grow 6.2 football fields.

• Approximately 8 sediment collection basins and 56 new drainage inlets with cross culverts below the highway were installed.

DURING		AFTER
Crews excavated the mountainside, widened the road and built a triple tier wall at the site of an old highway cut. These 3 walls are 810 feet long and have a combined height of 84 feet. The excavation and new wall prevents erosion and rock fall, improving the environment and safety for motorists.