When Glenwood Canyon sneezes, the town of Silverthorne gets admitted to the intensive care unit.

I am talking about the town’s lack of interest and management over all of the road construction. With Adams Avenue closed down in multiple places for extended periods of time, when the detour traffic from Glenwood hits, all the traffic is confined to Colorado Highway 9. From Fourth to Sixth streets, Adams Avenue stays in a ripped-up state, sometimes open to traffic, sometimes not. From 13th Street to Ruby Ranch Road, the town is letting the contractor for “Luxury Townhouses” take its own sweet time getting Adams Avenue back in service.

It is not just Adams Avenue. At Exit 205, they could have insisted that Colorado Department of Transportation cut an island down to allow two lanes turning east onto Interstate 70, and when Glenwood is closed, the town could put their police on to control the signals and manually direct traffic so that it does not back up past Annie Avenue. But they didn’t.

On Ruby Ranch Road, in the town’s continuing effort to mismanage surface water, they have put additional culverts in but keep the road down to one lane during construction hours, using a very complicated automated signal (affecting Smith Ranch traffic) for the benefit of the new day care center when I have never seen the need to block one lane. The detour signs for all of this construction give rise to more confusion than clarity. 

Come on town of Silverthorne. Get your act together.