Jackson Hole's own Big Dig
Thursday, July 31, 2008
By Henry Sweets
Jackson Hole, Wyo.-Skiers navigating Snow King’s steep slope this winter may not realize they are carving turns on top of Jackson’s newest commuter tunnel.
Developers of the 20-acre Pine Glades subdivision, which will include 27 luxury condominiums and 12 affordable housing units, began digging this month a tunnel just west of the ski resort. The tunnel will be 15 feet high and 26 feet wide and will include a sidewalk for pedestrian traffic. Once completed this fall, the tunnel will allow residents of the planned subdivision to circumvent existing neighborhoods.
When the development on the parcel was first proposed, residents of Pine Drive and Wister Lane expressed concern that the subdivision would draw through traffic into their neighborhood. That proposal was eventually scrapped.
Three years ago, developer Dave Taylor bought the property and decided to alleviate traffic concerns by linking the development directly to Cache Street via a tunnel. He is building the tunnel at the cost of “a couple of million” dollars.
Taylor said the tunnel is one of many “win-win” compromises he engineered between his development and the neighbors around it. His development will leave 80 percent of existing trees untouched and 12 acres of open space, he said. Taylor admitted the unsightly tunnel dig is “not win-win right at the moment,” but he assured the construction site would eventually be returned to its original state, including the right mix of native grasses.
Although, the tunnel might please some neighbors, it has become an eyesore and future ecological concern for others.
“We all need a place to stay, but I think this is too much,” said Fred Lamming, who lives on Aspen Drive and is a neighbor of the future Pine Glades subdivision. Lamming is an ecological consultant not associated with the project.
“Sometimes we rely too heavily on technology and aren’t thinking about the effects on the ecology down the road” he said. Lamming said he thought too much disturbance could throw off groundwater flow and harm a forest that is already under stress.
Pam Carter, a resident of nearby Pine Drive, is concerned about potential structural damage to her home, which is within a few hundred feet of the dig. She echoed Lamming’s warning.
“If you mess with Mother Nature too much, she might not like it,” she said.
Westwood Curtis Excavation is now scraping about 50,000 cubic yards of earth off the Snow King slope to depths of between 12 feet and 40 feet below the surface, a project that should be finished next week, Taylor said. At that point, a trench will be dug another 15 feet into the ground to house the tunnel. Eventually, the site will be restored to its original grade and reseeded, leaving a tunnel hidden below the ground, Taylor said.
Snow King owner and director Manuel Lopez said the project must be finished in time for snowmaking, which starts around October 1.
Lopez gave developer Dave Taylor an easement to build the tunnel underneath his property for free in exchange for a skier access on five acres of Pine Glades’ property. Lopez said that if he ever decides to build a new ski run to the west of Snow King’s terrain, Pine Glades’ access will allow skiers a route back onto the resort. He said there are currently no plans to cut a new slope.
“The whole concept of a tunnel seemed to make people uneasy, but as long as the developer does it correctly and reclaims the disturbed soils, it shouldn’t have any impacts on aesthetics or have any practical impact on the ski area whatsoever,” said David DeFazio, whose house abuts the western side of the Pine Glades subdivision.
Photo by spencer simensenThe new tunnel will enter on the bottom right side of the construction area, turn uphill and exit on the top right.PERMALINK:
Jackson Hole's own Big Dig | Planet JH News Article: General News
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