Best Overall Project of 2008

Gold Hard Hat Award

Outstanding Heavy/Highway Project

The Highway 82 Maroon Creek Bridge in Aspen is a 670-ft-long, single-cell, cast-in-place balanced cantilever concrete bridge with three spans: 170 ft, 270 ft and 170 ft. The bridge deck is 73 ft wide to accommodate two traffic lanes, two bus lanes and a 12-ft-wide pedestrian/bicycle path. The bridge deck is about 114 ft above Maroon Creek.

The cast-in-place balanced cantilever design was chosen to minimize impact to the environmentally sensitive Maroon Creek Wetlands, which had been restored from previous construction by the city of Aspen. The main span length of 270 ft was selected to keep bridge piers out of the wetlands area.

The unique shape of the piers and superstructure were chosen to mimic the adjacent 1890s vintage railroad trestle. The old railroad trestle had been converted for highway use by adding cross beams and outrigger bents, resulting in the uneven hourglass shape.

The Maroon Creek Bridge is the first cast-in-place concrete bridge built in the balanced cantilever segmental method in Colorado since four of them were built on Vail Pass in the 1970s.

Severe winter weather at the 8,000-ft elevation and an extremely overextended labor market caused difficulty through the length of the construction.

Bids for the bridge were originally received by CDOT in March 2005 but rejected. The project re-bid in May 2005 with the same completion date and was subsequently awarded to the low bidder, a joint venture of BTE Concrete Formwork LLC and Atkinson Construction. Utility relocation delays at the start of the project pushed critical path activities into the winter weather months. The third winter construction season saw record snowfalls in Aspen.

Despite the challenges, the bridge was completed within the contract time. Various changes to the project allowed for improvements to the bridge while remaining within the original budget.

Maroon Creek Bridge
Aspen

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