A Plan to Repair the Palisades: Is there finally some steam behind it?

[Kurt Maechner]

Someone notified me of an application that was submitted in December of 2020 with a detailed plan to repair the rock wall at the Palisades and clear the road to the west portal of Alpine Tunnel.  I made a small summary of the project here with a few diagrams of repair plans.  You can also find a link there to the full application (which is quite lengthy).

If anyone knows if this application has made any progress since December, please chime in.  It would be wonderful to know if the gears are finally in motion.
Kurt

[Jeff Ramsey]

Pretty impressive plan. Can not find any fault of this report. Would be a cool thing to go volunteer on this project.

I like it.

[Kurt Maechner]

Justin Kearns, over on the DSP&P forum, shared the following with more recent info on the plans for the Palisade wall repair project.  

I've been involved in this effort and can provide some more information. As you said repairing the Palisade wall is a huge undertaking.  It is highly unlikely that any single organization can fund the total cost so the project has been broken up into smaller chunks to try to proceed with various funding sources.  

The first application that was made was last year to the State Historic Fund.  This was denied however we were asked to reapply again this year.  The staff liked the application but their funding and processes were heavily impacted by Covid last year so very little actually got approved.  This is a major source of funding so we're hopeful that we will have some success this year.  

The second application, which is the one you posted about, was a state OHV grant.  This was for $90k primarily to be used for cleaning up and stabilizing the roadbed and improving the old Williams Pass stage road below the Palisade for future construction access.  We do not yet know if this has been approved.  If it is approved the funding will arrive too late to begin construction this year.  Work would commence next summer.

Thirdly we are working on obtaining 3 different Federal Great American Outdoors Act (GAOA) grants.  We are optimistic about these and they would fund the bulk of the project.  The process is very opaque and there is no opportunity for public comment unfortunately.  But we're hopeful that something will come through later this year that would allow work to begin in 2022.  

As I mentioned in a previous message a rock fall will be cleared this August that will allow motorized travel to the west portal, but only via Williams Pass from the Hancock side.  This will require a "serious" 4WD vehicle or ATV/UTV.  But at least it will be possible for those who want to drive up there and also for important maintenance of the site which has been inaccessible to vehicles since 2016.  Motorized travel from Gunnison will continue to be blocked until the wall can be repaired.  

Finally the next opportunity this year for public help and involvement will be the resubmission to the State Historic Fund.  The deadline for that is July 1 and there will be an opportunity for the public and interested groups to write letters of support for the project.  I will make sure the word gets out again when we have specific timing for that.

Hope that helps!
Justin

[Justin Kerns]

I'm happy to report that the OHV grant was officially awarded in the amount of $90,100!  This grant will pay for all of the rock scaling work above the ROW and the clearing of debris from the ROW itself from the Sherrod Loop all the way up to the West Portal.  The ROW will be cleared this upcoming August so that the tunnel complex will be accessible by vehicle for the first time since 2016.  Please note this access will be from the Hancock side via Williams Pass.  Access from the Pitkin side will not be restored until the Palisade Wall is repaired. The rock scaling work will occur next summer as soon as weather permits.

While this grant will not fund any actual repair of the Palisade Wall itself, it does fund these critical first steps of preparation.  We also hope and expect that it will help secure further funding. The next move will be the re-application for State Historical Fund money on July 1st. I will report back to ask for help with the SHF when we have clear direction on the need.  There should be an opportunity for the public to send letters of support and all help is greatly appreciated.

Thanks to all who have supported this effort thus far!  It's moving slowly but it is moving and I'm confident it will get done.

[Kurt Maechner]

This is fantastic news!  Thanks so much for sharing!  Thank you for all the work you and the others have/are doing to make this happen.

[Justin Kerns]

I'm happy to report some more updates on this effort! Firstly with respect to the previously announced $90k grant for rock scaling, we are putting a RFP out now and meeting with perspective contractors in 3 weeks. This work will be awarded this year and completed next year - summer of 2022. After this is done it will be safe to commence repair work.

With respect to new funding we have officially been awarded a $50k planning grant under the GAOA! This money will be awarded for FY22 and will pay for all of the remaining engineering and other planning work that needs to be completed before commencing the repair itself. We are also hopeful that this initial planning grant will precede a much larger implementation grant for FY23. We have targeted the GAOA as the potential largest source of funds for the Palisade repair so it's great to get some money coming from them.

Additionally the NFF (National Forest Foundation) has received a $3M endowment from Polaris and we've been told this project will receive some of those funds.

Finally we are still preparing our re-application for $200k to the SHF (State Historical Fund). The timing of this has changed a little with it being pushed back to August 1st instead of July 1st. I will let everyone know when the letter writing period opens for that important activity.

Thanks everyone for your continued interest and support of this effort!

[Kurt Maechner]

Justin, thanks for the update and the good news.  It seems really good that there are so many grant/financial avenues that are involved so as not to have all the "eggs in one basket."  It's really encouraging to see progress happening!

[South Park]

Am I reading too much into this, or can we expect to see trains running
between St. Elmo and Pitkin in 2023 ?

[Justin Kerns]

The time has come to send letters in support of the effort to get funding from the Colorado State Historical Fund. Basically just describe how important the Palisade Wall and Alpine Tunnel historic sites are to you and why they should be preserved and restored. Personal accounts of past visits are compelling. Here is the information for submission:

The letters need to be addressed to:
Dr. Chris Bowles
Director, State Historical Fund
1200 Broadway
Denver, CO 80203

They should be sent to:
Emily Olsen at National Forest Foundation
[e-mail]

NFF is the grant applicant helping us with this effort. They will combine all the support letters into one PDF file for the application. The application deadline is August 1st so we have about a week and a half to send letters in. You do not need to live in Colorado to send a letter of support.

I know this is a long ongoing effort and appreciate all of the support we've received thus far. If you can take a couple of minutes to compose a quick email in support it would be really helpful. Thanks for your continued help!

[Robert McFarland]

Why not rebuild the stone engine house and tenement building.

[Chris Walker]

Why not rebuild the stone engine house and tenement building.

Where's all the money coming from Robert, to do just that?  You however could (re)build those in any scale you choose, at no cost to the Taxpayer.

[Robert McFarland]

There was a re-creation of Bent's Fort done several years ago

[Justin Kerns]

For those of you who have already, or who planned to write letters of support for the SHF grant - please pause those efforts. The grant application has just been postponed until next year.  I'll post more information separately as soon as I can, but it is for a good reason.

Thanks again for your support!

[Steve Black]

Robert McFarland wrote

There was a re-creation of Bent's Fort done several years ago

They started the reconstruction in 1975 and that was a very different time.