Hoop Creek Bridge Restoration Project

      The Hoop Creek Bridge has always been an important, but little known part of American’s transportation history.  Clyde E. Learned, Senior Highway Engineer wrote in his 1924 Final Report for Seasons 1920-23 of the Construction of Berthoud Pass Forest Road by Day Labor Construction:

“ The Midland Trail, the main East and West transcontinental highway of the State of Colorado, upon which the total Berthoud Pass Project is located, has been designated by the State as a part of the primary system of Federal Aid Highways.” 

In the same report, he would also write:

 “The Project is 20 miles in length, and is a section of the main East and West Highway of the State of Colorado. The highway crosses the Continental Divide at an elevation of 11, 306 feet above sea level, this being the highest point on the Midland Trail, or the more recently named Victory Highway.” 

The Victory Highway was planned as a monument to the “American Heroes of the World War”. An article in the December 1925, Colorado Highways states:

“When the Victory Highway is completed it will constitute the greatest monument in all history... Across Colorado, the Victory Highway essays the Continental Divide over Berthoud and Rabbit Ear passes on a government built road which supplies a wide and safe line of easy grade through the most inspiring scenery to be found on any of the cross country highways topping a region between Denver and Salt Lake…”

      The actual Hoop Creek Bridge was part of both of these designated highways and is located on the east side of Berthoud Pass on the first switchback above the Stanley avalanche chute.  The Bridge was built in 1921 using a simple design of a concrete slab with pipe railings and had a distance of 18 feet between the railings.  The retaining walls would be of loose rubble. 

      In 1926, the stone walls of moss rock were added to the bridge and mortar was added to the loose rock of the retaining walls as part of a maintenance project. The distance between the walls was increased to 26 feet.  In 1930, the curve containing the Bridge was abandoned as part of an improvement project.

      In 1935, a U. S. Forest Service developed a landscape drawing showing plans to convert the abandoned bridge and surrounding area into a recreation use area.  Little progress, however, was made toward the plan until the present.  Over the years, logs, rocks and other debris had filled in the channel under the bridge. Each spring, as Hoop Creek rushed down the mountain, it would leap over the back wall of the bridge and spill into the old road bed, flowing out both sides of the bridge, destroying a little more of the bridge each spring.

      In the mid-1990, Partner for Access to the Woods or PAW (add link to PAW website) under the guidance of Carol Hunter approached the U. S. Forest Service about restoring the stone bridge to its 1935 design as a recreation area.  The Berthoud Pass Research Corridor for Universal Design was created in the spring of 2000 to conduct research and provide an outdoor classroom for students interested in studying universal design.  Universal design is the design of products and environments to be usable by all people, to the greatest extent possible, without the need for adaptation or specialized design.  Many partners and interested individuals have become part of the restoration of this little bridge.  On October 17, 2000, water flowed for the first time in over 30 years under the bridge.

      The next phase of the restoration was sponsored by a grant from the Colorado Historical Society’s State Historical Fund.  Dana Leavitt of ASLA Landscaping Architect prepared the conception and construction drawings for the restoration. Also as part of this phase, the students of the Colorado School of Mines provided a structure analysis of the bridge. The U. S. Forest Service conducted the environmental studies needed for the permits that are necessary before the actual restoration began.

In the summer of 2006, the bridge was restored by a group of volunteers from the “Corridor”.  The Hoop Creek Bridge site, one of two sites being developed by the “Corridor” will become an outdoor classroom on exhibit designs that include persons of all ages and abilities.  New methods will be tested at the site for tactile – touchable exhibits that can withstand the elements of Berthoud Pass and include the needs of persons with special needs including visual impairments.  The Hoop Creek Bridge will become one of the most important in the public’s understanding of the history of transportation over Berthoud Pass.