2018-12-12_REVISION - M2018016 (7)

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' Corridor between Empire Exit 232 and Denver or points close to the city). There P ( ) ( P tY) ' are a number of negative externalities from this traffic that affect both Clear Creek County and counties to the west, the recreational powerhouses of the Colorado economy. ' Specifically, DMRM submissions indicate that mining activities would be in operation from 7:00 AM to 7:00 PM Mondays through Friday and from 8:00 AM to ' 5:00 PM on Saturdays. Hauling operations could be expected to take place from 5:00 AM to 3:00 PM, that is, 10 hours a day.69 (But this may not be all, as the DMRM documentation also states that hauling could be extended to 24 hours a day and ' seven days a week.) This level of operation implies that there would be 31 vehicles coming or going into the mine every hour or, alternatively, a lineup of vehicles entering or exiting the Exit 232 ramps of I-70 every two minutes. DMRM suggests that traffic will not be consistent across all 'operational hours',with peak traffic maximizing at 20 truckloads of gravel hauled out per hour or, based on round trips, traffic coming in and out of the Exit 232 every one and one-half minutes.70 Immediate Costs of Increased Traffic The costs of DMRM operations are wear and tear on I-70 over many years, as well as on the access road to and from the DMRM to I-70. Highway wear and tear from vehicular traffic increases according to the fourth power of the weight of the vehicle, in other words one heavy truck causes much more highway damage than one passenger car.71 According to my calculations, one round trip of a gravel dump ' truck would create roughly the same wear and tear as 270,000 average 4,000-pound cars.72 Simply stated, the wear and tear of an additional 87,000 vehicle trips annually back and forth to Denver would cause a significant increase in road ' damage, particularly for the access ramps to and from Exit 232 off I-70.73 69 These figures imply that when the mine is in full operation,producing one million tons of ' sand and gravel per day,each truckload of output would be carrying nearly 23 tons of gravel back to the Denver area per trip. 70 DMRM-September 2018 indicates that between December 1st and April 15th, operational ' traffic would be limited to 10:OOAM to 3:00 PM, or five hours a day,to 'protect the elk range'. It would appear that traffic during the 10-hour working days during the summer and fall would be even more congested to reach the proposed annual target of one million ' tons. 71 https://www.pavementinteractive.org/reference-desk/design/design- parameters/equivalent-singlee-axle-load/ ' 72 Research has also suggested that road damage increases to the sixth power of the load on weaker surfaces. 73 DMRM-July 2018 disingenuously states: "In terms of costs,the majority will be the same ' or less for the county.This includes road impacts,as all of the reservoir development traffic that will use state roads maintained by CDOT." 24