Casinos, buses adjust to rock slide closure

Catherine Tsai

Thursday, June 23, 2005 | 9:20 a.m.

DENVER -- Buses accustomed to shuttling Denver-area gamblers through a narrow canyon on U.S. 6 to mountain casinos in Central City and Black Hawk on Wednesday braced for up to a month of taking a steeper detour after a rock slide closed a stretch of the highway.

Transportation officials said the highway could be closed up to month, with total costs for repairs and cleanup estimated at _$1 million to _$1.5 million.

A potential for more slides forced authorities to bar rafting, kayaking, tubing and fishing on a stretch of Clear Creek following the massive slide Tuesday that injured a truck driver.

Two tractor-trailers were caught in the slide that covered about 100 yards of highway with rock and debris up to 30 feet deep in Clear Creek Canyon about 20 miles west of Denver.

Joe Behm, president of the Central City Business Improvement District, expected few problems for gamblers with the new Central City Parkway taking visitors from Interstate 70 straight to town.

Town leaders pushed to build the four-lane road to help it compete with nearby Black Hawk casinos. Before it opened in November, many visitors took U.S. 6 or I-70 to Colorado 119 through Black Hawk, with some drivers stopping in Black Hawk before getting to Central City.

But even Black Hawk casino officials said they didn't expect the road closure to hurt business.

"It's not the first time this has happened," said Christopher Abraham, director of marketing for Isle of Capri and Colorado Central Station casinos, two of Black Hawk's largest casinos.

In September, the canyon route was closed while road crews did bridge work. So Black Hawk casinos told gamblers to take I-70 to Colorado 119, rather than the exit for the Central City Parkway, to get to Black Hawk.

"September turned out to be a good month for us," Abraham said.

People's Choice Transportation has buses leaving the Denver area hourly for casinos. It had to change all its routes from taking U.S. 6 to going on I-70.

"It's harder on the equipment because of the extreme ups and downs," president Joanne Lah said.

She said it was too early to tell whether the rock slide and highway closure would affect business.