The Emma Bridge Had to Learn to Shed Water Before It Could Become a Park

On the corner of Two Rivers Road and Cottonwood Drive there is a rainbow crosswalk, with flexible plastic poles that hold cars a little farther from people on foot. Just past it, the Emma Bridge was closed to pedestrians and cyclists from 9 a.m. on Wednesday, October 21 through the end of Friday, October 23, for what the Town of Basalt called "final concrete work." For a bridge that was meant to take about four months, starting in early March, that closure came late in the year. The delay traces back to one thing the old bridge never had: a way to get rid of water.

A Car Bridge Turned Footpath, With Nowhere for Water to Go

Plenty of locals know it as the 7-Eleven Bridge. The Aspen Trail Finder describes it as a vehicle bridge that was abandoned and then converted to pedestrian use. Today it carries only people on foot and on bikes. It links historic downtown, Basalt Elementary and Basalt Middle schools, and the Highway 82 corridor where the main RFTA stops are. Basalt Town Engineer Catherine Christoff told Aspen Public Radio it is a "well-loved connection point." She added that unless you are in that area, "not a lot of people realize really how busy it is."

The bridge had planters on it before this project. In April, Christoff explained to The Aspen Times why they failed:

"The existing bridge lacked an adequate drainage system, and as a result over time, the planters that had existed began to deteriorate, and the bridge decking had begun to degrade."

Water collected in the planters, soaked into the deck, and slowly damaged the structure. Snowmelt, irrigation and road runoff had no route off a bridge that was supposed to hold greenery. So the "park-on-a-bridge" idea depended on repairing the deck first. Without drainage, a new set of planters would have failed the same way the old ones did.

What Opened Up Under the Deck

When the Basalt Town Council approved the construction contract with Stutsman-Gerbaz Earthmoving, Inc. on December 9, 2025, town staff and the design team led by OTAK had already warned that the bridge's true condition could not be known until the damaged areas were opened. Demolition showed they were right. The Basalt Brief's summary of the June 23, 2026 council meeting lists two change orders that came out of it:

The deck figure is the important one. The design allowed for about two cubic yards of bad concrete. Crews ended up removing and replacing roughly 13.7, close to seven times what anyone could see from the surface. Expansion joints let a bridge move with changes in temperature, and failed joints let water into the structure, where it speeds up the damage. This is the same water story that ruined the planters, reaching deeper into the bridge.

The change orders raised the contract from $1,190,182.96 to about $1.313 million. According to the town engineer, the money was already in Basalt's 2026 budget and the project stayed within its budgeted amount. The broader Safe Routes work also received a $573,200 grant from the Colorado Department of Transportation.

Four Months on Paper, Most of a Year in Practice

Here is how the schedule moved once the hidden damage was found.

1. Early March 2026. Construction began, with completion expected in about four months.
2. June 2026. Staff reported all bridge repairs complete and north-side concrete poured, with paving expected the week of June 23 or soon after. Planter delivery slipped to July, and overall completion was still listed for summer 2026.
3. August 2026. A new parklet planter was under construction on the deck.
4. September 1, 2026. Christoff told Aspen Public Radio the town had planned to finish by the start of the school year, but a few more weeks were still needed. The bridge would stay open through the final stages.
5. October 21 to 23, 2026. The bridge closed for final concrete work. The town scheduled the closure for a stretch with dry weather in the forecast and no school on Friday.

The October notice did not give finish dates for the landscaping or lighting. For current status, the town keeps its project page on Let's Talk Basalt.

Why Drainage Is What Makes It a Park

With the deck rebuilt and drainage in place, the rest of the design can work. The town's list of project elements includes ADA-accessible sidewalks, pedestrian and bicycle safety improvements, new landscaping and lighting, safer crosswalks, modern drainage, and a deck built to handle snow removal. The stated aim is a "park-on-a-bridge" experience overlooking the Roaring Fork River. Being plowable matters on a route people use in January. Being drained matters for any planter meant to last more than a few winters.

Some of the design came from people who use the route every day. In 2024, town staff brought in Girl Scout Troop 17080, a group of local fourth and fifth graders. The scouts visited the site and sketched ideas with the landscape architecture firm Design Workshop. The rainbow crosswalk came from their observation that the intersection could use more color. Several of them also pointed to the traffic they saw walking to school. One scout told Aspen Public Radio she liked "how it wasn't just one design that was picked," and that the troop's ideas were combined.

The bridge is also one piece of an older plan. The project follows the 2007 Two Rivers Greenway Master Plan and Basalt's 2020 Master Plan, both aimed at connecting neighborhoods, schools and community facilities for people who walk, bike or have limited mobility. Town Manager Gloria Kaasch-Buerger described the bridge to The Aspen Times as "a key multimodal connection between Southside and East Basalt." The town's materials refer to the 2026 work as Phase I, which makes the bridge the opening section of a longer corridor along Two Rivers Road.

A Late-Fall Walk Starting From the Bridge

The bridge is meant for lingering, so the area around it makes a good short walk on a cold, clear afternoon.

• Confluence Park. Next to the Emma Bridge, the river access where the Fryingpan meets the Roaring Fork. Colorado Parks and Wildlife lists brown and rainbow trout in the Roaring Fork down to the confluence and says it can be fished much of the year. Regulations vary by stretch of river, so check the current rules before you cast.
• Fisherman's Park. It sits on both sides of Two Rivers Road and has river and boat access, so it falls naturally along the same corridor.
• The riverside boardwalk. In August 2022, Pitkin County announced that its Healthy Rivers program would install a 250-yard boardwalk between Fisherman's Park and the Roaring Fork Whitewater Park. The plan was a continuous walk along the river's edge from one park to the other, away from the road.
• Back toward downtown. The town's 2025 grant announcement describes the Two Rivers Road improvements as a safer route for people coming off the Rio Grande Trail toward historic downtown.

The parklet planters that were under construction in August now face their first winter on a deck built with real drainage.

If you own property along Two Rivers Road or near downtown Basalt, small public projects like this one shape how a home is lived in from day to day. If you would like to talk through what the improved corridor means for your property, Tara Slidell would be glad to help. Schedule a Consultation.