Road of Remembrance Pillars - the latest news
A new location for the stone monuments?
Undated photo from “A.A. Paddock Collection: East Boulder County,” maintained by the Carnegie Library for Local History, Boulder, Colorado.
In January 2023 I began reporting on Nextdoor about the stone Road of Remembrance monuments, at Arapahoe and 287. I knew a group was working on addressing some issues with the monuments, but when I had time to do some research over Christmas in 2022 not only did I get more interested but I was pissed off too. It turned out that when Erie’s Nine Mile Corner was built, the developer worked on the intersection and did a lousy job of creating an island for the south pillar. The north pillar was also in need of help.
In May 2023 in a three-part series, I recreated those Nextdoor posts.
A Road of Remembrance part one : What you should know about the stone monuments at Arapahoe and 287.
Led by Bill Meyer, the Rotary Club has taken the lead on the project to save the pillars.
As I wrote in the post- A Road of Remembrance part one “I relied on the excellent work done by Bill Meyer of the Boulder Rotary Club, and shamelessly copied and pasted from their website regarding the monuments and various documents shared there”
I encourage you to read part one because it has tons of history, photographs, and links to documents about the pillars that you might find as fascinating as I did. But for those just learning about this let me give you a thumbnail background of the situation and get you up to speed by shamelessly copying and pasting more text, this time from my posts!
If you are wondering what the city is doing about this, the monuments are not in Lafayette’s jurisdiction.
WHAT ARE THESE MONUMENTS FOR?
A ROAD OF REMEMBRANCE FOR WORLD WAR 1
The Rotary Club’s website tells us:
“Nearly 100 years ago, a group of Boulder veterans’ and civic groups came together create a Road of Remembrance honoring the men from Boulder County who served in World War I. The proposed Road was planned to follow Arapahoe Road, linking Boulder to a newly built section of the so-called Lincoln Highway (now US 287) in the east County.
Controversy over Boulder’s access to the Lincoln Highway raged for several years, but in 1928 Boulder civic leaders completed a memorial Gateway to the proposed Road composed of two stone pillars and an associated park. Though the Road of Remembrance was never completed, the pillars became a Boulder County landmark at the intersection of Arapahoe and US 287.”
FAST FORWARD TO 2021
HOW THE COLORADO DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION (CDOT) DROPPED THE BALL AND ALONG WITH THE DEVELOPERS OF ERIE’S NINE MILE CORNER CAUSED MAJOR PROBLEMS
The Rotary Club’s website tells us:
“CDOT issued a permit allowing a private developer to substantially reconfigure the Arapahoe Road – US 287 intersection. Unfortunately, no historic preservation review was performed as required by Colorado law to determine the impact of the proposed construction on the pillars.
The resulting construction has substantially worsened, and in fact endangered, this historic Boulder County landmark. A November 2021 study by the Colorado Department of Transportation (CDOT) concluded that this new construction severely impacted the physical integrity and historic significance of the pillars, and added a new and serious vehicular hazard for eastbound traffic.”
THE BOULDER ROTARY CLUB STEPS IN
The Rotary Club’s website tells us:
“After this situation was raised with CDOT by the Boulder Rotary Club in the latter part of 2021, CDOT conducted a belated, “after-the fact” consultation with the State Historic Preservation Officer (SHPO). Those agencies determined that in order to mitigate the adverse effects of this recent construction, a Mitigation Working Group should be formed to develop a plan for the preservation, monitoring and perpetual maintenance of the pillars.”
THE MITIGATION WORKING GROUP
The Rotary Club’s website tells us:
“Boulder Rotary Club, in cooperation with CDOT, formed such a working group composed of more than a dozen Boulder County civic, veterans, and governmental organizations to analyze all possible alternatives for mitigating the adverse impacts on and preserving the pillars.”
Documentation of the current situation
Here’s the document from that link
THREE OPTIONS WERE CONSIDERED, TWO WERE RELOCATIONS
A Road of Remembrance part two : The three options
ONE OPTION WAS RECOMMENDED
February 2023
A Road of Remembrance part three : Recommended location and response from CDOT
This was the relocation site recommended by the working group.
CDOT SAID YES TO THE RELOCATION SITE
June 2023
Major Milestone Reached on the Road of Remembrance Pillars: Relocation site accepted
RELOCATION SITE FALLS THROUGH
September 2023
Time to start over again
CURRENT SITUATION & POSSIBLE NEW RELOCATION SITE, ATLAS VALLEY.
You might recall my recent post about changes CDOT is considering for Arapahoe. I wanted to finish that report before moving on to this one as it’s related! Here’s the latest update from Bill Meyer.
“All,
By way of update, CDOT is looking at the feasibility of relocating the pillars to the Atlas Valley parcel on the SW corner of 95th & Arapahoe. CDOT is planning to expand that intersection, and is presently working on the design for that expansion. The issue is whether, after the expansion, sufficient area will remain for the pillars’ relocation. We hope to get an answer from CDOT by late June
In the interim, CDOT has confirmed that a landscaping contractor has been retained to undertake some tree removal and landscaping work around the pillars at their current location. The contractor is on track to start in late April, and intends to mobilize at the site on April 29th and wrap things up by May 7th at the latest. A CDOT specialist will do a bird survey before any trees are removed. Hopefully, this work will both improve the visual appearance of the pillars in the near term, and improve the sight lines for drivers entering Arapahoe from Stonehenge.
Thanks for your support, and we’ll keep you posted,
Bill”
Want to offer more support? Awesome!