When the first nine-month closure came in 2016, Christine Williams was prepared. She tightened the budget of her roadside coffee shop, Jamoka Joe’s, and stuck it out.
But then came something she wasn’t expecting – U.S. Highway 34 closed again in 2017. The traffic flow slowed to a trickle for the second year in a row.
Williams said she stopped seeing her regular customers from Estes Park altogether.
“I have a lot of customers who live up there,” she said. “So, I didn’t see them all year.”
With its bright yellow exterior, Jamoka Joe’s catches your eye as you pass it along Highway 34 in Loveland. But even that didn’t help Williams during construction, which officially ended in May.
During the rebuilding, the Colorado Department of Transportation completely rehabilitated parts of the road after extensive damage from 2013 floods. Crews replaced guardrails, repaired fencing and put up new protective walls.
Even with an accelerated timeline, many owners are still recovering from the financial hit, Williams said.
Shannon Davis, interim CEO of Visit Estes Park, said businesses on both ends of the construction — in Loveland and Estes Park — have mixed feelings about the road’s reopening. Visit Estes Park is an underwriter with KUNC.
“It’s a combination of celebration and relief for a lot of folks,” he said. “But there’s still work to do to get people’s businesses back to where they were at pre-flood levels.”
Even though the road is now open, CDOT says to expect delays until December of this year, including a major one from July 13 at 9 p.m. to 6 a.m. July 14. Crews plan to finish installing girders along the Mountain Shadows 2 and Idlewild bridges.
Due to ongoing paving this summer, drivers should expect to hit 20-minute delays, according to CDOT.
Jared Fiel, a spokesman with CDOT, says there will not be "any real delays" along the highway after this summer, though work on the road will continue until December.
Williams’ Loveland customers have been the biggest help during and after construction, she says. The low amount of traffic over the past few years has hit her sales volume by “30 to 40 percent.”
“Of course, the population has grown so much along the Front Range,” she said. “If this were 10 years ago, I probably would have closed.”
Editor’s Note: Visit Estes Park is an underwriter with KUNC. Underwriters https://youtu.be/Nf1TACfm3r4">are not involved in content, coverage or editorial decisions. This story has been udpated with a statement from CDOT's Jared Fiel regarding ongoing work past this summer.
