Old Fall River Road

Old Fall River Road located in Rocky Mountain National Park is a historic road that travels west off Highway 34 to the Alpine Visitors Center which sits close to the top of Longs Peak.   In September of 2013 heavy rains in the region caused extensive damage to various segments of the Old Fall River Road.  This project includes repairs to impacted portions of the Old Fall River Road located between the Alpine Visitor Center and the Alluvial Fan.  Repairs are to include Reconstruction of the Road, Drainage Repairs, Box Culvert installation, Gabion Wall construction, Rockery Wall installation, Corrugated Metal Pipe installation and Aggregate Surface Course lay down.

The construction began on July 28^th.  A team was created between ESI, the Federal Highway Administration and the National Park Service to pin point areas of the road that needed new drainage, existing drainage to be fixed and gabion wall construction to re-establish the washed out road.  CMP culverts and rockery walls were installed first so that the road could be embanked.  One of the largest tasks was to build a large gabion wall that attached to older historical gabion construction so that the steep and narrow switch back could be passable.

This process involved pioneering excavators down a 1 to 1 slope to build the wall.  The wall started from the base of one road and spanned 250’ long and upwards of 100’ tall.

Construction near the Alluvial Fan area included demolition of an existing bridge where a river flowed at one time.  During the September 2013 flooding the river rerouted itself where ESI built an 8X10 Reinforced Concrete Box.  This construction required ESI to divert the river to the west while the RCB was installed.  After the Box was installed the river was pushed back into the new RCB and the road was reestablished and paved.

The entire length 8 miles of Old Fall River Road was surfaced with a class 6 base course that was mined and screened by ESI at a pit east of Estes Park.  The entire production took only 2.5 months which was completed for the National Parks Service before winter.