GENERAL55787

• Permit No: M1999002
• IBM Index Class Name: General Documents
• Doc Date: 8/18/1998
• Doc Name: COMMERCIAL MINE PLAN SUBMITTED TO BLM SECTION 8
• Media Type: D
• Archive: No

Section 29) will include construction of the access road and pipelines from Horse
• Draw up to the initial processing plant, as well as development of parts of the 0-5
year and 5-10 year mining panels (see Figure 2-1 and Section 8.5).
The Dudley Bluffs ACEC would not be impacted by the proposed project because this
ACEC lies south of the proposed pipeline route and would not experience any
surface disturbance from pipeline construction.
8.15 TRANSPORTATION

Construction Phase
During the 1- to 2-year construction period for the Yankee Gulch Project, project-
related vehicle traffic to the Piceance Site would range from 3 to 92 commuter trips
per day in cars and light trucks and 17 to 33 truck trips per day for delivery of
equipment and supplies (Kvaerner 19988). Construction commuters would either
take Colorado Highway 64 to Rio Blanco County Road 5 (Piceance Creek Road) from
Meeker or Rangely or Colorado Highway 13 to Piceance Creek Road from Rifle or
other communities along the Interstate 70 corridor. It is likely that most of the
vendor trips will come from Interstate 70.
For the Parachute Site, daily commuter trips would range from 8 to 128 trips per day,
with 33 to 66 vendor deliveries per day, 5 days per week (Kvaerner 19988). These
trips would utilize Interstate 70 from Rifle and other communities along the
Interstate 70 corridor to the town of Parachute and then Garfield County Road 215
{Parachute Creek Road) to the Parachute Site.
For construction of the pipeline between the Piceance Site and the Parachute Site,
traffic would comprise approximately 35 commuter trips per day and an estimated
10 truck deliveries per day to the active construction areas along the pipeline route.
Many of these trips would utilize Colorado Highway 13 to Piceance Creek Road and
on to various portions of the pipeline route via dirt roads. Along the southernmost
portion of the pipeline route from Davis Point south to the Parachute Site, access by
these same pipeline construction workers would be via Parachute Creek Road from
the town of Parachute and then dirt access roads to the pipeline route itself.
To calculate traffic-related impacts, project-related vehicle trips were compared with
baseline traffic volumes. For traffic to the Piceance Site and the pipeline working
areas in the Piceance Basin, it is assumed that the origin of traffic would be split
between Meeker (30 percent) and Rangely (20 percent) from the north, and Rifle (50
percent) from the south. Thus, half the traffic was assumed to access the project area
from Colorado Highway 64 to Piceance Creek Road, and the other half was assumed
to access the project area from Colorado Highway 13 from Rifle to Piceance Creek
Road. Based on these assumptions, traffic volumes would increase by a maximum
• of 4 to 6 percent on Colorado Highway 64 and a maximum of 7 percent on Colorado
Highway 13. On Piceance Creek Road, traffic would increase by a maximum of
American Soda, L.L.A. 8_,~3
Cnmmernal Mine Plan
August I8, 1998