Steps Mark Progress in Canyon Project

PHOTO BY NATHAN MCBRIDE, JEFFCO OPEN SPACE TRAILS SPECIALIST

Jeffco Open Space recently completed a flight of stone stairs connecting the Clear Creek Trail in Golden to the Welch Ditch Trail above it. In the future, the stairs will give hikers-only access to a route that was originally built to carry creek water to farms and orchards.

For the time being the area is a construction zone and the public won’t have access until 2021, while crews work on the concrete trail and bridges.

The stone is granite obtained from nearby Clear Creek Canyon. Jeffco Open Space Trails Team designed and built the stairs using an excavator and hoist.

The stonework is part of an Open Space effort to restore the area where Clear Creek enters the foothills in Golden and is known as the Mouth of the Canyon Project.

One of the biggest building projects Open Space has ever undertaken, the projected cost is $15 million with completion projected in spring 2021.

The bulk of the work will take place in 2020 with a crew of about 40 to 45 people. Construction began in June 2019 on the south side of Clear Creek near the intersection of Highway 93 and US 6/58. (See complete story in February 2020 Plan Jeffco Update newsletter).

Crews have been taking advantage of less traffic due to health restrictions and installing culverts under US 6 to Black Hawk and Central City.

For a progress report on the Mouth of the Canyon Project, click on the link to the YouTube video.

— Vicky Gits