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Volunteers plan 'Remembrance Plaza' to save 1928 Road Remembrance Gateway pillars as CDOT widening approaches
Summary
Volunteers and veterans groups say relocation is the only option to preserve the 1928 Road Remembrance Gateway pillars after intersection reconstruction damaged the monuments. A site at Atlas Valley in Lafayette has been offered and preliminary engineering is under way; fundraising is needed to cover six-figure moving and site costs.
Bill Myers, chair of the mitigation working group led by the Boulder Rotary Club, told the Boulder County Historic Preservation Advisory Board on Dec. 4 that relocation is the only feasible way to preserve the Road Remembrance Gateway pillars after nearby intersection work impaired their historic integrity.
“We soon determined that relocation was the only viable option,” Myers said, describing the pillars’ 1928 origin as a gateway to a planned Arapahoe Road “road of remembrance.” He said Colorado law requires identifying historic structures and assessing adverse effects before construction, but that a developer’s reconstruction left the south pillar marooned and partially buried, prompting a CDOT post-project eligibility and effect determination.
Myers said the working group has focused on sites along the historic Arapahoe corridor and is pursuing a location on the southwest corner of 95th Street and Arapahoe in the Atlas Valley subdivision, where landowner John Cohaagen has offered to donate land. The group has raised $25,000 from the Boulder Rotary Club and other donors to fund surveying and initial design work, and has retained Flatiron Zinc and JVA Engineering to develop site plans and structural engineering.
Engineering work will address drainage and foundations beneath the proposed plaza. “There’s a City of Lafayette drainage easement that goes directly under the plaza,” Myers said, and engineers will need to relocate storm drainage and design substantial foundations because he estimated each pillar weighs “an estimated 35 tons”.
Myers described two moving options—lifting the pillars intact or disassembling them stone‑by‑stone and reassembling them—and said both approaches are costly. He cited past costs for context: the pillars were built for about $1,300 in 1928 and one pillar’s 1983 reconstruction cost $29,000; current estimates for moving and site work are in the six figures.
Myers said earlier expectations of federal, state or local grants now appear unlikely, making private fundraising essential. The mitigation working group has scheduled a meeting Dec. 10 to refine final designs and to prepare materials needed to seek further funding.
Board members asked about proximity to Arapahoe and coordination with CDOT, which Myers said has been involved in mitigation planning and expects to widen the corridor with transit improvements; he said work at the 95th/Arapahoe intersection is expected to begin in late summer. Myers said the proposed plaza would sit well back from the road — his visual estimate was roughly 150 feet — and that design work will aim to balance visibility and long-term protection from roadway expansion.
Myers said he had no immediate funding request for the board but expected to return with specific asks as designs solidify. The working group’s next public steps are the Dec. 10 design meeting and continued fundraising to cover moving, foundation and site‑preparation costs.
