A walking and bike bridge in Adams County that was not open until 9Wants to Know asked questions.
Courtesy: Jim Richards
ADAMS COUNTY - The county has agreed to open a pedestrian and bike bridge built over the South Platte River that some citizens called the county's "bridge to nowhere."
Lottery and sale tax money funded the $676,400 bridge that sat unused and locked up for 21 months, until 9Wants to Know asked questions about it.
PHOTOS: ADAMS COUNTY 'BRIDGE TO NOWHERE'
"We're talking about a significant amount of money sitting useless for a long period of time," Adams County resident Jim Richards said.
Richards walks his dog along the series of trails near East 126th Avenue and Brighton Road. He says he had asked the county several times to open the bridge so he could walk along the trail on the other side.
Cattle gates had stopped anyone from reaching the half-mile stretch of the path east of the Adams County Fairgrounds. The bridge is part of the Platte River Trail, which runs from Chatfield Reservoir to E-470 near Brighton.
The gates were put up shortly after the bridge's dedication in May 2010.
"I attended the dedication. During the dedication, someone told me this is just ceremonial, 'They are going to lock the bridge off again tomorrow.' I said, 'No it can't be,'" Richards said.
Within a couple of days, that is what happened.
"I made the decision to keep the bridge closed," Rick Anderson, Adams County Parks community resources director, said.
He says private property owners in the area were concerned with people crossing the bridge and trespassing on private property. Anderson decided to block off the bridge until the half-mile section of trail on the other side was connected to a planned section of trail leading into Brighton.
He says when the decision was made in 2010, he felt that with the trail currently ending a half-mile past the bridge, people might be tempted to walk off the trail once they reached its end.
Since that time, the county has built a fence between parts of public and private land. The fence was completed in November of last year but the bridge remained closed.
When 9Wants to Know contacted Anderson with residents' concerns that the bridge was sitting unused, he revisited the idea with his staff.
"We've had some discussion with my operations staff and indeed they informed me that we have had multiple requests from citizens that wanted to see this trail open," Anderson said.
After that, he says he decided to open the bridge.
"I think it's honest to say, Channel 9 bringing this to my attention resulted in me looking into it a bit further and the result is we got it open," Anderson said.
He will monitor this area to make sure there aren't significant problems due to the new stretch of open trail.
Eventually, the stretch of trail east of the bridge will connect with a planned trail leading into the City of Brighton.
Have a comment or tip for investigative reporter Jace Larson? Call him at 303-871-1432 or e-mail him at
jace.larson@9news.com
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