Bridge Opens!

Big news in our part of the world…the new Grand Avenue Bridge opened for traffic last Tuesday.

Monday afternoon saw a “pedestrian walk” event scheduled as the grand opening; all area workers and residents were invited to walk across the bridge before it opened to auto traffic. Scheduled for 4:00 PM, I made plans to attend.

I don’t know how many people the organizers planned on but an estimated 3,000 people showed up for the walk. (I heard a couple hundred was the expected turnout.) Brief remarks were scheduled followed by a ribbon cutting; the walk was to begin at about 4:10 – 4:15.

I finally started walking at about 4:35, still don’t know what the hold-up was but it was getting dark and a cold wind was blowing. I saw several people heading back off the bridge rather than wait any longer but eventually all the walkers did get across.

Here are a few photos of the event plus the front page of the local newspaper.

Headline – Local Paper

People gathering on bridge before opening. (Charles Engelbert)

View of march from bridge level.

Having the bridge functioning, particularly during the morning and evening commuting hours, is a great relief for anyone who has to work in Glenwood Springs. Commuting times immediately returned to normal, eliminating the (often long) backups on the side roads that had served as detour routes. It helps make our commute much easier and quicker and we are very happy the contractors were able to open the bridge 10 days ahead of schedule. Generally good weather and a $25,000.00 per day contractor bonus for every day the bridge opened ahead of schedule undoubtedly helped!

Looking ahead, we are planning an overnight trip this weekend to the Woodland Park area of Colorado, not that far away from Colorado Springs. Pam has located a couple of interesting properties  in the area that we will drive by and look at. On the way home we will stop by The Lot and check it out. More on this trip, with photos, in my next post.

In a few unrelated events, here are a couple miscellaneous photos that don’t really belong to any large topic. The first is the back of our RAV4 after a shopping trip showing how convenient it is to have a small wagon, and the second is Laax, Switzerland, where daughter Felicity concluded a 5-week house sit.

RAV4 after a shopping trip

Laax, Switzerland (stock photo)

That’s it for now. Thanks for looking in!

Pam’s Two Cents Worth:

Thanks for birthday greetings.  Another year – yippee.

Heard from Toby.  His first week working for the Tribe is going OK; there is an employee cafeteria to which he has access for a minimal fee, definitely a bonus. Full benefits and a retirement program makes us happy. He is [finally] “adulting.”

Felicity’s current house sit in England (she flew there after the Switzerland house sit) is near the ancient site of Sutton Hoo. Which is on her “to visit” list, but actually getting to Sutton Hoo using the local bus system will require a walk of a little over a mile from the last bus connection. Felicity contrasts British transportation connections to the Swiss transportation system – Switzerland wins.

Happy Trails.