"If we're having to deal with this for another three to five years, we're going to have to step up, and so we have to figure out what those methods are," Mayor Rachel Richards said at an August 2025 work session on West End traffic. She was talking about the wait for a new Entrance to Aspen. Council had received a number of letters from constituents about that summer's traffic, and West End residents told council it had gotten worse.
Fourteen months later, the city has spent the money, run the studies and tested the barriers. Everything it has tried shapes how drivers move through the West End. All of it also depends on one fixed point at the far end of the route: the Smuggler Bridge, which carries Power Plant Road over Castle Creek. The city now plans to replace that bridge, with construction expected to start in April 2027. The cut-through traffic problem and the bridge project have been covered as separate stories. Next spring they arrive at the same time.
Where the Sneak Actually Goes
Drivers have used the "West End sneak" for almost 20 years to skip Main Street's afternoon backup. City Engineer Tricia Aragon told council in August 2025 that about 30% of traffic leaving town at peak hours goes through the West End, using West Smuggler Street to reach Power Plant Road.
However drivers wind through the grid, they leave the same way. Power Plant Road crosses Castle Creek on the Smuggler Bridge, and the city calls that crossing "critical secondary access in and out of the city." It was built in 1973 and has outlived its typical design life. Inspections found structural, hydraulic and scour concerns. The narrow roadway, steep approaches and sensitive creek corridor add more limits. The city has decided to replace the bridge rather than repair it.
Seventeen Measures, One Shared Assumption
The city has been working on this for years. Aragon counted 17 measures put in place over time. They include a seasonal ban on right turns from 7th Street onto Main Street, the Cross Town and Music Festival shuttles serving the West End, and added stop signs. Barriers on West Hopkins Avenue already kept cars off that pedestrian bikeway before Hallam got its own.
In December 2025, council approved two analysis and design contracts totaling $397,000. Jacobs Engineering and Alta carried out the work. City project manager Hailey Guglielmo said the goal was to address the safety and walkability problems the traffic causes. Eliminating the traffic itself was not the goal. Councilman John Doyle had warned the previous August that the West End problem would not go away entirely.
The first physical result appeared on Hallam this spring. The city put traffic diverters on the Hallam pedestrian and bicycle way at 1st, 3rd and 5th streets. The 5th Street diverter came out after a field review found it got in the way of Crosstown Shuttle operations. The 1st and 3rd Street diverters stayed under monitoring. City staff say the trial worked to cut unauthorized vehicle access, and the city plans to reinstall diverters on both Hallam and Hopkins next spring.
Every one of these measures changes where drivers go inside the West End. None of them changes where drivers come out, which is still Power Plant Road and the bridge.
What Council Takes Up in November
A staff memo described in the Aspen Daily News on September 29 says "near-term implementation is limited to low-risk operational measures, including signage, stop bars and traffic diverters on the Hallam Pedestrian and Bicycle way." Anything bigger goes to a council work session in November.
| Item | What the consultants found | Where it stands |
|---|---|---|
| Highway 82 signal timing at Cemetery Lane and Truscott Drive | Jacobs found new timing would improve peak flow and ease West End congestion, but lengthen waits on Cemetery Lane and Truscott | Needs talks with CDOT before anything changes |
| Right-turn signal from Cemetery Lane onto southbound Highway 82 | Could add further benefit | Part of the same CDOT discussion |
| Eighth Street crossing | A full signal would add Highway 82 delay; a pedestrian hybrid beacon is an alternative that would still affect flow | Council will compare it with the existing rapid flash beacons |
| Seventh and Eighth street walkways | Alta rated a painted pedestrian lane or new sidewalks on both streets as the best options | Both streets are in the sidewalk deferred zone, so sidewalks would require a policy change |
| Power Plant Road trucks | Truck-activity analysis is being finalized | A proposal comes back only "if a feasible and legally supportable restriction is identified" |
| Peak-hour right turns from Mill onto Bleeker | Reviewed | Staff do not recommend changes |
| More one-way West End alleys | Reviewed | Staff do not recommend changes |
Three of these items deal directly with Power Plant Road or the Highway 82 signals it feeds into. A truck restriction would set rules for a road whose bridge is about to be rebuilt. Retimed signals at Cemetery Lane would shape how quickly traffic clears after it crosses that bridge.
The Decision That Matters More Than the Vote
Senior Project Manager Jack Danneberg told The Aspen Times that "final construction, phasing and traffic management details have not been set." The city is weighing two options. One closes the bridge completely during construction, which would most likely take less time and have a bigger impact. The other keeps one lane of traffic open throughout. Danneberg said public safety and evacuation access will remain key considerations throughout.
Construction is expected to begin in April 2027 and take about four months. If it starts on time, that window runs through spring and into summer. Summer is the season whose traffic set off the August 2025 letters to council. The city expects temporary traffic disruptions, construction noise and changing traffic patterns. It has not yet published how it would handle traffic that currently leaves town over Power Plant Road, and says it will share phasing and access details in January.
The schedule as it stands:
- Wednesday, Oct. 7, 2026, 4 to 6 p.m.: first Smuggler Bridge open house, in the Pearl Pass conference room at Aspen City Hall, with preliminary design concepts and input on how the bridge will look.
- November 2026: council work session on the West End mobility items listed above.
- January 2027: second bridge open house anticipated, with the city planning to share phasing, access and expected impacts during that outreach phase.
- Next spring: diverters go back in on Hallam and Hopkins, per the city memo reported September 29.
- April 2027: bridge construction expected to begin, with a window of about four months.
Danneberg said the city wants to hear residents' and road users' priorities on "access, construction impacts, recreation, neighborhood character and the overall user experience" alongside feedback on the bridge's appearance. The phasing choice is still open while those comments come in. The October and January open houses are the public meetings where it is on the table.
The Longer Fix Is Still a Drawing
The permanent answer the city keeps pointing to is the Entrance to Aspen. The latest version of that plan, which council reviewed in September, would prohibit left turns off Power Plant Road specifically to curb the West End sneak. It would also add a lane connecting Cemetery Lane to a new Highway 82 alignment and turn the existing Castle Creek Bridge into a local road. It shows new traffic lights at 7th and Main and at 4th and Main for pedestrian safety. Doug Stremel of Jacobs Engineering told council the designs are still conceptual and subject to revision.
For now, the Power Plant Road left-turn ban is a proposal inside a plan that is still being reevaluated. The bridge replacement already has a start month. The first public look at its design is Wednesday from 4 to 6 p.m. in the Pearl Pass conference room at City Hall.
If you own in the West End, construction on Power Plant Road may change how your street works from April through summer, and that can matter for a seasonal lease, a renovation schedule or the timing of a sale. Krista Klees | Palladium Group follows these city decisions as they happen and can help you plan around them. Request a private consultation.
