FLOOD08183

• County: Summit
• Community: Breckenridge
• Stream Name: Blue River
• Basin: Colorado Mainstem
• Title: Floodplain Information Breckenridge
• Date: 9/1/1974
• Prepared For: Summit County
• Prepared By: Leonard Rice Consulting Water Engineers, Inc.
• Floodplain - Doc Type: Floodplain Report/Masterplan

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the high country, once more swelling the torrential river.
At nightfall, water ~'as again lapping over the top and running
across Lincoln. The county road crew, working against time
and nature, swiftly Fut in an additional culvert on the west
side of the fill to divert part of the incoming flow around
the culvert, and back into the Blue.

Saturday it appeared that the immediate danger might
when debris floating down the river choked the mouth
the culvert. Water tacked up over the road.
illegible) . used to unplug the culvert.
more the road was saved.

be past
of
(original
Once

Sunday afternoon the culvert again became choked with debris
and it was necessary t,o obtain larger equipment to remove the
obstacle from the mout:h of the culvert. Robert Graham
Excavating Company was called, and Bob Graham, owner of the
company, brought his backhoe to the scene. In order to get
close enough to work, Bob moved his equipment down into the
bed of a small stream entering the Blue from the west side.
He managed to remove ':he debris, but the suction and pull of
the water was so strong that the bucket was pulled up against
the mouth of the cul v,=rt and an axle snapped on the backhoe.
With the help of the B. L. I. backhoe, Bob managed to get the
bucket of his machine pulled up and away from the mouth of
the culvert. Due to the crippled condition of Graham's
equipment, and the under-current and suction of the river,
it was impossible to remove the machine with the help of the
B. L. I. backhoe and the county road maintainer.

Lincoln leads to the Peak 8 ski area, and is the last existing
link at this time with the town reservoir, Valley Brook
cemetery and many summer homes on the west side of the Blue
Ri ver.

At the time of this writing (Monday afternoon), it appears that
Lincoln is safe.

It was feared for a time that the water main leading from the
town reservoir to Breckenridge might be swept away at the
point where it crosses the Blue, but fast work on the part of
the town water crew, diverted the force of the waters from the
viaduct.

Holes and depressions in the rock piles filled with water. At
one point, near Mid City, the water overrunning the old dredge
holes, a~a new course, and plunged down to Highway 9 at
Braddock Flats. From there ir ran north beside the highway in
a muddy, roaring torrent for nearly a mile. until it reached
the four-mile bridge and poured into the Blue. For a time
there was some doubt as to whether the four-mile bridge would
be able to withstand the current pressing and washing against