Tonight Dillon Dam Road officially reopened to round-the-clock traffic, more than three years after local officials and Denver Water, operators of Dillon Reservoir, clashed on the issue.
A Denver Water-Summit County task force worked out a security plan that includes better lighting, guard stations at each end of the dam, road realignment and roundabouts to lessen the chances of a terrorist attack to the reservoir.
Homeland security was Denver Water’s reason for closing the road after 10 p.m. starting in July 2008.
The road, however, is also known as Summit County Road 7 and serves an important detour for traffic off Interstate 70 and saves time for local fire, police and law-enforcement operations, local officials countered.
“We feel this is the right balance between public use of the road and additional security improvements,” Thad Noll, assistant county manager for Summit County, said in the release.
Construction has been going on along the Dam Road since Aug. 1 and scheduled to be complete by Nov. 9, according to a Denver Water press release.
Denver Water CEO Jim Lochhead said he appreciated the communication and cooperation of Summit County officials
“This is one example of how collaboration can pay off,” he stated. “We look forward to continuing to work with Summit County on cooperative partnerships in the future.”
The security task force was made up of Denver Water and representatives from Summit County government, Dillon, Silverthorne and Frisco, as well as local law enforcement and emergency responders.
The reservoir is Denver Water’s largest storage facility at 3,233 acres with 26.8 miles of shoreline, which supports boating, fishing and other tourism for several community.
Denver Water serves more than 1.3 million customers in the metro region.
