Ribbon Cutting for Lyons Bridge Marks Milestone in Flood Recovery

On Tuesday June 12th, residents of Lyons, along with Boulder County officials, celebrated the opening of a new bridge along the South St. Vrain Creek outside of Lyons. The previous bridge was destroyed five years ago in the floods that devastated much of the county.

Eric Lane, Director of Boulder County Parks and Open Space says that today’s ribbon cutting event was an opportunity to showcase much of the flood restoration work that has been done along the river.

“We’ve been going through flood recovery for years and it’s significant because it’s nice to take a moment to appreciate one of the projects being fully completed and this one is a great integration of both the transportation infrastructure, the hardscape if you will and a lot of stream recovery work which is the softer infrastructure with a lot of natural channel design to rebuild a more resilient eco system for more than a mile downstream from the bridge which will not only improve the ecological function but will also provide more protection to the downstream communities.” -Eric Lane, Director of Boulder County Parks and Open Space

George Gerstle, Transportation Director for Boulder County said that road and bridge reconstruction worked hand in hand with river bed restoration.

“Very early on when we started looking where the flood damaged roads were, it became very clear that they’re right next to the creeks and you can’t repair one without looking at the other, they’re an integrated system. So wherever we had roads next to creeks, we also looked at restoration of creeks as part of the road projects.”  -George Gerstle, Transportation Director for Boulder County

Fast Facts:

• The bridge that washed away during the 2013 Flood was a 73-foot long concrete structure that was built in 1960.
• The new bridge is rated to withstand future 100-year flood events.
• The bridge/road project cost approximately $2.26 million to construct and is eligible for federal reimbursement.

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