Pouring of cement marks key milestone in Pikes Peak summit house project
A year after the project to build a new summit house on Pikes Peak began, workers this week started pouring cement to form the concrete foundation.
Jack Glavan, manager of the Pikes Peak Highway, said workers poured cement Tuesday and Friday, and require several more days to finish the job.
“The concrete has to set and cure for a few weeks,” he said. “The weather is only now conducive to pouring cement at that altitude. You need a stretch of fairly dry and warm days.”
The high on Pikes Peak was near 60 Friday.
Glavan said in a few weeks, workers will start hauling truckloads of precast and prefabricated materials to build the new summit house.
“It takes about two hours per truckload to reach the summit,” he said. “We do that work overnight while the highway is closed.”
The $60 million project is scheduled for completion at the end of next year. Around $7 million in public fundraising remains.
Some help is coming from drivers in this weekend’s annual Pikes Peak Hill Climb.
For the first time, each driver has an online page that will collect donations, with a trophy and plaque on the new summit house given to the driver with the most donations.
The apparent leader so far is Don Wickstrum, a race driver from Wisconsin who is fighting colon cancer and was knocked out of the race after a crash during a practice run.
“I’m heartbroken,” he said. “We were fast and getting faster. I went sideways and ended up at the rear end of a cliff.”
Wickstrum said he is “blown away” by the donations in his name, and said a childhood trip with his family up the mountain is his inspiration.
“Here’s the mountain that gave me my dream,” he said. “What better way to give back than to help with that summit house? You realize the scope of the project. It’s enormous what they’re doing up there.”
Wickstrum said his sponsor may match whatever amount of donations he receives.
“My car, Bernice, and I will be back next year,” he said.
In a related matter, all 250 camping spots along the highway have been reserved for the night before the race. It’s the only time that camping is allowed on Pikes Peak.
