Maroon Creek Bridge - Future

Future

Rail transport may yet return to the bridge. In 1975 Aspen voters approved a referendum permitting the city to endorse the county's application to the federal Urban Mass Transportation Authority for the funding of a light rail system to connect downtown Aspen to the airport, and perhaps the Buttermilk ski area and eventually all the way to Glenwood Springs using either of the old rights-of-way. Later votes endorsed other aspects of the proposal. In 1997 the Federal Highway Administration and CDOT issued a Record of Decision (ROD) in favor of a light-rail network and improvements to Highway 82, including the new bridge eventually built. The light rail line would likely use the old bridge and the old Midland route where it exists, since those tracks had already accounted for the steep grades in the valley, not a common problem with light-rail lines.

After the ROD, another referendum found city voters still supporting light rail but county voters opposed. The federal government nonetheless set aside funding for the segment to the airport, which would have been the first rural light rail line built in the U.S. Later referendums on bond issues to fund the city's portion failed, and after the failure of another referendum to build a monorail between Denver and ski resorts along I-70 the project did not seem likely to begin until money was available from another source.

Segments of the former pedestrian bridge are being reused. One was sold for scrap and four others were used as part of a pedestrian bridge across the Roaring Fork near Basalt. Three others are in storage; the county is considering using them to replace an old bridge along the Brush Creek Path in Snowmass.