[BikeLongmont] Price Road Bridge - almost ready!

[Richard Masoner]

Price Road has been paved south from Boston Ave to the St. Vrain River, 
and the concrete path for access to the bridge from either side of Price 
Road and from the St. Vrain trail looks complete. The toe plates were 
installed a couple of days ago and the barricades removed from the 
bridge. I talked with a couple of workers and they said the bridge is 
available for use and that all work should be completed by the end of 
this week. They seem to be doing landscaping and some heavy equipment is 
still being used in the area so caution by bridge users is necessary.

I frequently see people walking across the existing RR span here, so the 
addition of this bridge provides a much safer crossing for them. A 
personal benefit to me is that it shortens my commute by a half mile 
:-). For recreational trail users, the bridge doesn't really go 
anywhere, but I can see that it's a tremendous benefit for residents of 
the trailer park who need to access businesses along Boston Avenue and 
beyond.

Nelson at Ken Pratt/Price is a busy intersection (about 12,000 vehicles 
every day), and most drivers on Nelson Road are not expecting traffic to 
or from Price Road so extreme caution and skill on the part of the 
cyclist is required, especially for those turning left from Nelson onto 
Price Road. It's kind of a weird intersection anyway so I'm not sure 
that a pedestrian style crossing to Price is all that possible or safe 
but I'll take another look this evening. Riding contra-flow on the 
sidewalk isn't an option here because of high traffic businesses on the 
north side of Nelson. Probably the best option is avoiding this 
intersection during periods of heavy traffic, but if somebody has other 
ideas I'm all ears.

RFM