By Lynn Burton

Sopris Sun Staff Writer

Dolores Way is one of Carbondale’s
more problematic streets and most of it isn’t even in the town
limits.

Coming into Carbondale on Highway 133
from Highway 82, Dolores Way is the first right-turn option. It leads
past the blue-roofed Ajax Bike & Sports, then into unincorporated
Garfield County and greater Satank itself before dead-ending at the
Roaring Fork bridge.

The problem with Dolores Way is getting
out. Specifically, the problem is turning left to pull up onto
Highway 133 to motor north during morning or afternoon rush hour, or
after school. It can take a while getting onto Highway 133, as
Dolores’s traffic stacks up and motorists get antsy.

The solution?

That’s the problem.

After months of discussions, there
apparently isn’t a solution that will satisfy Satankers and their
on-again-off-again adversaries at the Colorado Department of
Transportation.

Is anyone besides Satankers and CDOT
involved in the dispute?

Yes. The Garfield County commissioners
are involved and they’ll discuss the Dolores Way issue while
considering CDOT’s proposed Highway 133 access control plan at
their meeting at the Garfield County Courthouse at 1 p.m. on July 8.

The Carbondale Board of Trustees signed
off on CDOT’s access control plan (ACP) several months ago and now
it is the county’s turn. The ACP includes plans for rebuilding
dozens of existing access points on Highway 133 in years to come. At
some point in the future it calls for the town to build a road south
of Ajax Bike & Sport to connect with Highway 133 at La Fontana
Plaza.

Most Satankers want CDOT to put in a
traffic light at Dolores Way but they’ve been told that such a
light is too close to the one at Village Road.

Dolores Way activists report that last
April they met with CDOT, Garfield County and the town of Carbondale.
The solution that seemed to make everyone happy, or at least
something CDOT could live with, was a roundabout at La Fontana Plaza.
With a roundabout, folks wanting to turn left from Dolores Way onto
Highway 133 would turn right, hit the roundabout and let it spin them
north on Highway 133. Satankers say CDOT later backed out of the
roundabout.

Satankers say they’ll attend next
Monday’s county commissioner meeting, but might have to leave home
well before noon in order to turn left from Dolores Way and onto
Highway 133.