The occasional clash between analytical statistics and real life experiences became evident during recent discussions about transportation impacts from Nestle Waters North America plans for a water-harvesting project in Chaffee County.
During a Chaffee County Board of County Commissioner’s public hearing earlier this week in Buena Vista, Nestle traffic engineering and transportation planning consultant, Martina Wilkinson, provided detailed data, all pointing to the conclusion that track traffic from the Nestle project will have a minimal impact on the 12-mile corridor of US 285 in Chaffee County from Johnson Village to Trout Creek Pass.
Nestle proposes to truck spring water from Chaffee County to a bottling plant in Denver from which it will be distributed under Nestle’s Arrowhead brand adding two tractor-trailer trucks each hour every day, one eastbound, one westbound.
Factoring in federal and state transportation standards Wilkinson wrote in her official report to the county that “the impact of the proposed project traffic on the corridor is less than two percent on an annualized basis and less than one percent during the peak travel month. This is considered nominal in traffic analysis standards and per CDOT (Colorado Department of Transportation) warranted no additional study beyond the traffic impact study (TIS) completed and approved by CDOT for the site access.”
Furthermore, Wilkinson’s report notes that even with the addition of Nestle truck traffic, the corridor will function within the two best level of service categories, not require the addition of climbing lanes or additional passing lanes.
For the complete text of Wilkinson’s traffic study, see the Nestle Crib Sheet on the Salida Citzen.
Despite the traffic engineering reports and statistical analysis, several members of the public, including Chaffee County Commissioner Tim Glen, noted that despite the statistics, they had personally experienced close calls with bad traffic accidents along the corridor.
Commissioner Dennis Giese asked if Nestle had looked at alternate transportation corridors to Denver such as US 24 north through Leadville to I-70. Nestle project manager Bruce Lauerman said the US 285 corridor was chosen in response to citizen objections to added truck traffic in Buena Vista or other county roads.
During public testimony at the county commissioner hearing earlier this week in Buena Vista, Dick Scar of Buena Vista was critical of Nestle’s report for focusing strictly on the 12-mile traffic corridor in Chaffee County.
“This project effects everyone from Johnson Village to Denver,” Scar said, noting he personally recently observed “chancy” passes by passenger vehicles following a hay truck on US 285 to Denver.
Others noted the report did not factor in how the combination of winter weather and additional truck traffic would impact safety along the corridor.
Chris Faust, who regularly travels US 285 between Chaffee County and Fairplay in the winter, said the traffic study was inadequate. “There’s been no talk about the costs to business and tourism of a flipped truck on Trout Creek Pass.”
Rebecca Owens of Salida questioned how a 13 percent increase in truck traffic would benefit the recreation and tourist-based economy while Scott Cragle of Buena Vista was concerned that there had been no examination of the pollution impacts from Nestle truck traffic.
Look for additional stories on Nestle economic impact and hyrology/wetlands/water in upcoming posts on the Citizen.
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