From KUNC (Grace Hood):
Johnny Olsen oversaw much of the repairs for the Colorado Department of Transportation.
“When you think about it and you drive it, you won’t see it because they did such an amazing job. But about 60 percent of our roadway was lost,” he said.
In some ways the repaired road looks better than it did before—both lanes completely accessible and fully paved. But alongside the road you can see just how destructive the floodwaters were. Homes like this one are still severely damaged…
In Estes Park, Mayor Bill Pinkham says business has been slow at his end of the canyon, too. That’s despite the state paying to keep Rocky Mountain National Park open during the government shut down. For now, Pinkham is focusing on the positive—and the future.
“The restaurants are open, the stores are open, and we’re ready to celebrate the holidays,” he said.
During this morning’s ceremony Hickenlooper and other local leaders painted part of a yellow stripe on the road. The highway reopening is especially welcome news for Estes Park, which is hoping to boost visitations during the Thanksgiving holiday weekend.
From the Longmont Times-Call (Whitney Bryen):
About a dozen town administrators and a few volunteers packed up the maps that covered the library bookshelves and moved them back to [Lyons] Town Hall, which underwent extensive cleanup and repairs following flooding in September.
“It feels like a little normalcy to us, or at least a baby step toward that,” said Arianne Powell, who is in charge of accounts payable and customer service for the town of Lyons.
During the past two months, the original Town Hall building, 432 Fifth Ave., got new carpet and tile, Sheetrock and paint. Construction was being completed when employees arrived with boxes at 8 a.m. Thursday.
From the Longmont Times-Call (Craig Young):
In a symbolic gesture during a day full of symbolism, the mayors of Loveland and Estes Park hugged at Thursday’s ceremony celebrating the opening of the vital U.S. 34 link between the cities.
Despite the bitter cold and falling snow, the mood was upbeat for the event outside the Big Thompson Canyon Volunteer Fire Department station in Drake.
With “Love Don’t Die” by Colorado band The Fray providing the soundtrack, scores of highway workers celebrated, officials gave speeches and Gov. John Hickenlooper helped paint the final stripes down the middle of the highway that was rebuilt after September’s flood…
With U.S. 34 running through Loveland up to Estes Park, Loveland mayor Gutierrez said his city considers itself the gateway to Rocky Mountain National Park. He thanked everyone responsible for reopening that gateway.
“When people start driving this road, they are not going to be impressed,” he said, “because they will not have seen what you started with.”
What the Colorado Department of Transportation, contractor Kiewit Infrastructure and many local subcontractors started with was an 18-mile stretch of canyon roadway that needed repair or rebuilding on 70 percent of its length.
To drivers getting their first look at the rebuilt road, the new temporary U.S. 34 looks much like the old highway – paved the entire way, with passing lanes and shoulders in places.
“To get this done in 10 weeks is amazing,” said [Governor Hickenlooper], who pledged in the first days after the flood that the state would build temporary roads on every destroyed highway route.
From the Loveland Reporter-Herald (Alex Burness):
Big Thompson Canyon Fire Department Chief Bill Lundquist, one of the last canyon residents to be evacuated by helicopter, said those who braved the snow to drive on U.S. 34 Thursday will never really know what it looked like. To him, that’s a testament to the swift and high-quality work performed by road construction crews.
We flew out up over Drake and through the canyon, and we really thought it was going to be a year before we got back here,” said Lundquist, 54. “But they put this highway back together in two months. It’s so important to have it back. What it really means to most people in this community is that they can go home. That’s big.”
Lundquist added that, before the highway reopened, his department had trouble responding to even the smallest of incidents.
“We’ve got to cover our district, and this highway is essential to that. Even if we had a house fire, the only way we could fight it would be with buckets from a helicopter,” he said.
The highway’s reopening is equally vital to local businesses. Many of the ones lucky enough to have survived the flood have still been on life support for the last two months.