Cline Mining Corporation reports that preparations for the New Elk Mine are on schedule, with the Colorado Department of Transportation (CDOT) recently approving the company’s request to truck coal along Highway 12 from the mine to the rail yard in Jansen, east of Trinidad.
Cline plans to continue to truck the coal from the mine to the Jansen rail yard until a steel railway line running from the mine to the rail yard is reinstalled. The reactivation date of the railway line is currently unknown.
“The New Elk Jansen Rail Yard load-out links the coal mine to the Burlington Northern Santa Fe (BNSF) Railway unit train service and its continental rail network, allowing access to the major Pacific and Atlantic North American bulk coal export terminals, as well as U.S. steel mills,” the company stated in a recent release.
CDOT’s media liaison, Bob Wilson, told The Times Independent on Tuesday that an access permit review had been completed by CDOT for the mine’s entrance onto Highway 12. “Whenever there’s a request it is reviewed to make sure that increased traffic or increased to or from the state highway system is not going to be a negative impact to either safety or traffic already on the state highway system,” he said. “This occurs, for instance, when someone build a big shopping center or some sort of development that appears that it will be affecting traffic significantly.”
Wilson also stated that CDOT was requiring Cline to make improvements to some of the transportation infrastructure, such as to the mine’s main access driveway, to nearby County Road 63.9, an eastbound left turn deceleration lane off from Highway 12 and a eastbound right turn acceleration lane onto Highway 12. “(The acceleration lane) allows the trucks get up to speed, so traffic doesn’t have to slow down to let a large truck onto the highway,” he said.
Concerns have been voiced, particularly by county representatives, as to the potentially deleterious effect on the highway of the expected high volume of truck traffic between the mine and rail yard. County commissioner Jim Vigil had asked CDOT representatives about the possible impacts to the highway at a June meeting, stating, “Highway 12 will be really busy, and will take a beating.”
Wilson responded Tuesday, “I don’t honestly know how many trucks will be on it...sure, you’re going to see an increase in traffic on the highway, but where we’re concerned is primarily with the (mine’s point of) access.”