Please join the City to celebrate the new Emerald Park Access, scheduled to open Monday, June 18th at 10:00 a.m. This project will create a new entry to the Emerald Park soccer and baseball fields and playground, and the Botanic Park, via Hwy 40 next to the Hampton Inn.
The Emerald Park Access project has been a joint project with the Union Pacific Railroad and is the culmination of several years of discussion, planning and construction. Drivers are currently only able to access the park area by driving through the Pamela Lane neighborhood located directly adjacent to the park. The City contracted with United Companies for construction of the project and the overall project budget is approximately $3 million. The new access will alleviate the high amounts of traffic experienced in this neighborhood, especially during tournaments and busy game times.
On Monday, the railroad crossing at Trafalgar will be close to vehicles and the new crossing will be the point of access to the park. To enter the park, motorists from Lincoln Avenue will use the newly constructed Emerald Park Way. To exit the park toward the mountain area, motorist can make a right turn onto Lincoln Avenue from Emerald Park Way. However, motorists will not be able to make a left turn onto Lincoln from that location. In order to travel toward the downtown area, motorists will use the newly constructed Ski Town Way in order use Trafalgar Drive where they can make a left turn at the signal. There will be a period of acclimation to the new arrangement. Navigation maps on smartphones will likely be incorrect for some time. The attached map shows the entry (green) and exit (blue) traffic flow arrangement.
While the new crossing, roadway, and parking lot construction will be complete by Monday, crews still have work to finish. The week of June 18th and June 25th the Union Pacific will be doing work on the former Trafalgar Drive crossing to replace it with a new crossing surface and to modify the warning gates and lights for the core trail only crossing. There will be intermittent impacts to the core trail during that time, during which time the core trail may be detoured to the new crossing and down Pamela Lane to the core trail. In August crews will return to replace the core trail in the vicinity of Trafalgar Drive and make modifications to the intersection of Trafalgar Drive and Ski Town Way.
The celebration will take place at the crossing site, and all are encouraged to attend. Light refreshments will be served. For more information contact Ben Beall, City Engineer at bbeall@steamboatsprings.net or 970-871-8293.