Veterans Island to close for bridge installation

Just as the weather starts to warm up, the town of Saratoga will be down one public park.

Veterans Island Park will be closed to the public during parts of this summer to make way for the pedestrian bridge project. The town also said that the park will be closed for reservations from mid-June to mid-July.

Saratoga Town Engineer Chuck Bartlett said that he made the call Friday to close off Veterans Island. An exact date of when the park will be closed is still undecided, however, the park will be open until actual construction commences.

The project will consist of constructing two separate bridges from the Saratoga Hot Pool to Veteran's Island. The bridge from the hot pool to the peninsula formed by Spring Creek and the North Platte River is being constructed by the town of Saratoga. The bridge from the peninsula to Veteran's Island will be built by Big R Bridges of Greeley, Colo.

Bartlett said that the town is going to start building abutments (the concrete structures at the end of a bridge where the span of the bridge rests) this week.

"Pretty much [Veterans Island] will be shut off for April, or at least part of it," Bartlett said. "Then when the installation starts being put in, the whole island will be closed. That's going to be late June, first part of July... and that will be for a week or two."

Bartlett said there will be a large amount of equipment on Veterans Island before and after the bridge construction.

"There will be probably four or five semis [trucks] on the island hauling material, hauling the bridge, hauling the crane and a variety of different things," Bartlett said. "Right now we are not sure if we are going to start at the end of June or end of July."

Bartlett said he is still waiting to hear back from a crane operator before a date is set.

Though the park is used less and water levels in the river are lower in the winter, the bridge has to be built during the busy summer months.

"Because of the frost on the ground, that can be a hazard for the crane," Bartlett said. He explained that the frost causes softer ground which would be an unstable base for the crane.

The crane operator will be hired by the town at a later date.

Todd Huggans, western sales manager of Big R Bridges, said while it may take several days to get the parts transported, the placing of the bridge can be done in a matter of hours.

"If the abutments and everything is in place," Huggans said. "It takes no more than one day, we just put the two pieces of the bridge together."

Though the process of actually placing the bridge takes only a few hours, setting up the equipment can last well over a week.

"It takes up a lot of room," Huggans said. "We have a bridge that weighs 70-thousand pounds ... you want a big clear space if you are going to put in a bridge that is 150 feet long."

One event that may be impacted by the pedestrian bridge project is the Steinley Cup Brew Festival. Saratoga/Platte Valley Chamber of Commerce director Stacy Crimmins said that the Steinley Cup, traditionally held at Veteran's Island, may have to move to a new location.

"We will continue to have the event," Crimmins said. "But we would have to have it at Kathy Glode Park."

Crimmins said that when Veteran's Island flooded, they had previously moved the Steinley Cup to the park on the south-side of town.

"It really does not change much for us," Crimmins said. "We just have to build a fence around the venue ... it will be a little harder to maintain."

Saratoga mayor, John Zeiger, said that it is important for citizens to understand that the park will not be completely shut down for the duration of the summer.

"I don't foresee it being shut down for the entire summer, we just aren't going to book any events right now," Zeiger said.

The Saratoga Sun will keep you updated on any developments with the park closure.

 

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