• Fish
• Snakes
• Birds
• Bats
• Sheep
• Coyotes
• Bears
• Deer
• Mountain lions
• People

Have we not assaulted nature to satisfy our own egoism enough?

For me, the ratio for OTR is vanishingly small, almost zero.

Some of Christo’s other projects (the one in NYC’s Central Park comes to mind) had a much higher artistic value compared to its disruption.

In my case, and everyone who works where I do, as well as the same industry’s business in Canon City, ALL the lane closures do indeed lie between us – whichever end of the canyon we start from, be it home or “office” – and where we perform our work. This is equally true of raft companies and their shuttles, as well as other commercial transit through the canyon. The entire canyon is my “office.” My work is on a timer, the client’s timer, and any delays of the significance described in Christo’s construction plan will blow that time constriction out of the water (pun intended). This is negative impact and it is real.
I have read the same Christo plan that Marshall cites – yes, all 600-some pages. Marshall’s explanation of the numbers is exactly what I saw, too. That’s why I fear for my financial future, for my employer’s future, and even our Canon City counterpart’s future, if this project is approved.

There are 3 areas that directly impact Howard residents, here are the areas, and the drilling schedules

Construction and Drilling on Highway Side in County Line Area:
10.1 days in May
9.7 days in March/April
12.7 days in September
Construction and Drilling on Highway Side in Tunnel Area:
8.4 days in April/May
20.9 days in April/May
26.4 days in July-Sept
Construction and Drilling on Highway Side in Vallie Bridge Area:
11 days in April
25.2 days in May/June

These figures come from the Plan Supplement, Site Calendar, p. 1; Plan Supplement, Drilling Calendar. Total them all up, and you have 124.4 days of drilling on the road side in the summer months.

Divide the 124.4 days of drilling that’s 62 days a year, mostly during the summer months from April to September, which will likely coincide with the 600+ days of other activity. Remember Christo’s statement that there wouldn’t be lane closures during the summer ? Well, his plan sure seems to dispute that statement.

All four crews will be working at one time, but only in the areas where their particular equipment is required. Thus drill crews will visit multiple sections and sections will be visited by multiple drilling crews at different times. Drills will remain within the river corridor until completion, fueled and supplied on site at night. Plan Appx J1, Hayward Baker report

So, this lengthy operation will continue into the night. Another bonus for the residents. If they were to drive from Salida to Canon City, as many do daily for work, they could encounter up to 4 lane closures. This is not a little inconvenience, this is a 2 year industrial assault on the canyon, and it’s inhabitants.

The independent economic estimates were commissioned by Christo, and that statement was inserted to give them credence. No where has an actual study with verifiable data been made publicly available. When I reference things in letters to the editor, and in forums such as this, I have the references and data to back them up, as I demonstrated above, however in most situations I don’t include them as my letters are long enough already. Christo does not do this, instead he believes that those that drink the Kool Aid will believe every word he utters as truth, when in fact, it’s disputed by the document he submitted for the EIS, which is why I urged you to read it, or at least the summaries.

Lastly, if you can’t find time to wade thru the 600+ page plan to gain information, you’ll really love the DEIS, which likely will consist of at least 2000 pages. It’s not an analysis of the project, it’s an analysis of the projects impacts, based on the information available to the EIS contractor. It will likely have 4 or 5 alternative actions, one of which will be the BLM’s preferred alternative. I urge you to take the time to read it, and digest the information contained therein, and then make a substantive comment to the BLM.

I am now told two different things (not mutually exclusive) one says that there are 600+ activity days on the road side, another says that there are 252 days with lane closures. Neither says where, but from reading what Marshall has posted there appears to be only one installation site between Howard and Salida. So using roar math, if there are 5 sites and only one is between Howard and Salida, and there are 252 days of lane closures, that would be 50 days per site, and dividing that by three years that is 16.6 days per year and so about 1.4 days a month on lane closures between Howard and Salida. That doesn’t seem like a big deal.

That analysis makes no sense.

Thanks though for the reference to the 200 million number, now I have a least a secondary source as to where it comes from. However, the article notes the number is from independent estimates, not from Christo. I don’t know who these independents are, but at least it is a start.

The article from Boston is nothing more than pure opinion. The part I think best is where the writer, picking between a high number that benefits Christo and a low number which supports his opinion, writes “I think the $80 million (Lower) number is probably closer to the mark.” for no reason whatsoever. This is classic of the Christo opposers. “I think X, and since X conflicts with what Christo says, he is wrong.”

This is clear in most of the documents you reference put up by roar. Sure there are footnotes, but then there is a lot of just opinion. Christo says he won’t work on the road side of the river during the summer, (footnote) but he is wrong, he will. (no footnote) And further more he will do it a lot and he will close the hwy in both direction when he does, (no footnote) even though he says he won’t. (footnote) This is why it is hard to find an honest broker for people like me, who don’t have the time to do the research ourselves.

I look forward to the release of the EIS, which I have to hope, is a balanced analysis of the project.

Sure, there are reimbursements done all the time, however in many circumstances, reimbursements could provide a color of impropriety, especially in the oversight and restoration phases, just as the BLM chose the firm to do the EIS contradictory to the wishes of the OTR team, things are done all the time to eliminate the perception of impropriety. Is Christo going to pay the Chaffee and Fremont sheriff’s office for the increased jail occupancy created by the proposed hobo camps made by the college students which will come to build the thing ? What about the inevitable lawbreakers that come to view it ? There are monetary costs which are hard to predict, and will be impossible to collect upon after the fact. Will Christo pay for lost wages due to construction delays ? I could go on….

Here’s some providence to the 200 million claim in the Denver Post
http://tinyurl.com/kljvoe
And here’s a take on it from Massachusetts
http://tinyurl.com/27w9bt6
Which while being written by an admitted curmudgeon, seems to be more realistic than Christo’s projections.

In either regard, IF the 250,000 people came to view the display as Christo claims, take that number and divide by 200 million, and you’ll see that Christo is basing his profit assumption on the fact that each man, woman and child that views the display will each contribute in excess of $500.00 per day. My extrapolation is simply math, based on the numbers Christo provided me with in both the media, and contained in the plan.

As to the highway closures affecting the canyon residents lives and well being, if you add up the activity days listed in the drilling and event schedules in the OTR Plan, Christo proposes 600.7 activity days on the highway side, 493.35 activity days on the railroad side and 1227.07 activity days that are unspecified as to location. The plan Christo submitted specifies up to 4 lane closures along the length of the road at any given time. He tells the public when asked, that the majority of the work will take place on the railroad side of the river.

Given that the proposed construction activity takes place at the Chaffee / Fremont county line, the Rincon AHRA site, Vallie Bridge, Texas Creek and pretty much all the way to Parkdale from there, this encompasses most of the length of the highway, and the fact that drilling one anchor hole takes between 3 to 4 hours means between 26,976 (1,124 days) and 35,968 (1,498 days) hours of drilling to install the anchors alone. This does not include installing the “anchor transition frames,” cables or panels. As for each hole on the railroad side, this translates to a matching hole on the highway side. As the Anchor transition frames each require 2 anchors per frame, that’s 4, 10 foot deep holes for each cable. This isn’t going to be a speedy process by any stretch of the imagination.

If you take a look at http://www.christosrealplan.org/OTRimpacts.html you can download the traffic analysis done in Powerpoint, that reveals some very interesting information.

It floored me. Christo says to the public that at no time will the road be closed completely, yet in the plan he submits to the BLM, it states that a majority of the anchors will be installed using a crane and basket, it even details the exact holes to be drilled with said crane ( I didn’t do an exact count, and the numbers aren’t contained in the plan, but it appears to be the majority of the holes on the road side). What it doesn’t say, is that in a large amount of these crane basket drilled holes, the road is only 40 feet wide, mountain to guardrail. The Rincon, or Tunnel site as the plan calls it is a perfect example. So is Vallie Bridge.

What it also doesn’t tell you is that the crane itself is 30 feet wide when set up, and CDOT requires a 6 foot buffer zone between it and any traffic. That’s a total of 36 feet, which when erected, will leave 4 feet for a vehicle to pass. Great if you’re riding a motorcycle, not so much if you drive a car, truck or tractor trailer,

The crane takes a minimum, under perfect circumstances, of 15 minutes to collapse itself and move out of the way. Now, think about a cardiac patient in the back of an ambulance (8 feet wide) running emergent to the hospital from Howard. Even if the ambulance crew could notify the construction people upon their departure from Howard enroute to Salida, they could wait a minimum of 10 minutes for the road to become passable. Now, remember the 3-4 hours to drill each hole I mentioned above ?

You think this is fear mongering? I live in Howard, and drive the ambulance, and I don’t see it as such one little bit. I took the time to read the plan, and the appendices that Christo provided the BLM when they said the initial plan was not adequate as it was non specific and read like an EIS, and outlined my concerns.

I suggest, politely and respectfully, that before dismissing mine, and many others concerns as fear mongering and poppycock, that you take the time to do the same, or at least read the condensations of the plan that ROAR has made available at http://www.roarcolorado.org. They have specific footnotes as to where in the plan they got the information. You might find yourself asking some very difficult questions too.

I made a fact / issue analysis in another thread on this site, it lays out in plain terms a few facts and issues with the OTR plan. You might find it interesting reading as well. http://tinyurl.com/25eqsps

Marshall

While I agree with Marshall that some of the government functions cannot be privatized, that is different from saying the costs cannot be passed on to Christo. This happens all of the time, applicants are required to reimburse government agencies for costs incurred by them. There is nothing novel here, unless Marshall has some information to specific to this project which contradicts the ways things are normally dome. Contractors pay for management of traffic and safety issue and for reclamation costs regularly.

I have seen this “economic analysis” of $9 per business per day pop up a number of times, but have not been able to recreate the numbers because I haven’t seen any references to source material for these assertions. Maybe someone can point me to the original material for to help me determine the truth behind the “facts.”

I welcome informed discussion on the project, but sometimes it just seems to get out of control. I would point out for example, that in response to concerns about traffic and accidents, Christo proposed increasing police presence and then the opposers made this claim “If there is so much of a need for police and law enforcement, why is this extremely dangerous project even being considered?” (See the analysis of christo’s webiste of the ROAR website) Concerns along the lines of how to evacuate the canyon during OTR if there is a terrorist act seem designed less to be real concerns and more about fearmongering. I don’t think anyone really takes this kind of talk seriously.

Christo touts that we’ll get 4% of the 200 million dollar projected revenue to split with neighboring towns, that sounds like a huge windfall for 3 years worth of “inconvenience”, but when you take into account the displaced visitors and the revenue they bring, that 4% starts to fade. 4% of 200 mil is 8 mil, divided by 3 years is 7,306.00 per day. Dividing that by the 4 towns closest to the project leaves 1825.00 for each town. For Salida, divide that by 200 businesses leaves $9.13 for each business per day. We’ll all be rich !!

It’s a truly novel idea, proposed in the worst location imaginable, bolstered by one of the most misleading propaganda campaigns of all time. Stop the madness, just say NO to Christo

To get more information regarding this proposed project, visit http://www.roarcolorado.org or http://www.christosrealplan.org/index.html

Jeanne-Claude, wife of Central Park Gates artist Christo, dies at age 74
BY Adam Lisberg
DAILY NEWS CITY HALL BUREAU CHIEF

Thursday, November 19th 2009, 1:51 PM