30 Years Ago – January 21, 1983
The route over Rollins Pass, one of Colorado’s most scenic mountain passes, has been closed now for over three years and it looks like it will remain closed a while longer. The road was closed in 1979 because of a cave-in in the Needle’s Eye Tunnel, which is located in Boulder County about 13 miles north of East Portal on the pass road. Estimates of the costs of repairing the tunnel are around $100,000. However the tunnel is not the only thing keeping the road closed. An estimate to repair the two trestles located just west of the tunnel is about $1 million. When the tunnel collapsed, and the trestles were found to be unsafe, the Forest Service closed the road. Signs were posted, however people just tore them down, cleared the rock out of the tunnel and kept right on driving over the road through the tunnel and across the trestles. Next summer, the Forest Service plans to physically barricade the road with boulders and dirt. Just about everybody agrees that reopening Rollins Pass would be wonderful. However money to make the repairs has been unavailable. In the meantime, a group of four-wheel-drive enthusiasts has requested the use of the old wagon road over the pass. The problem with that, according to Gilpin County Engineer Hal Donnelly, is that about a quarter of a mile of the road, on a knife-edged ridge, shallowly covers a gas pipeline and “if somebody drags a differential across that pipeline, they’ll go way high.” The gas line was put in in the late 1960’s to bring gas to Dillon and Vail and carries 600 pounds of pressure. Johnson said any vehicle which accidentally broke the line would “take flying lessons.”
Jim Russell is the new deputy district attorney assigned to Gilpin County. He said he expects there will be less plea bargaining now, more cases being filed, and more preparation time in the future in Gilpin County.
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