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| Michael Yearout Photography |
Breckenridge’s Main Street will close to motor traffic Thursday afternoon and become what the Breckenridge Tourism Office has dubbed Walkable Main on Friday.
The closure will last for about eight weeks and is meant to allow for physical distancing in accordance with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s COVID-19 recommendations.
More than 25 restaurants and retail establishments are ready to bring seating and shopping outside, according to a news release from the Breckenridge Tourism Office. The full closure is planned to be on Main Street between Watson and Jefferson avenues, and a partial closure extends south to 400 S. Main St. with access for residents.
Restaurants are permitted to place four tables with a 20-person occupancy in a section of the street. Tables and stanchions rentals, which must be used for dining within a restaurant’s designated section, will cost each restaurant $350 for the duration of the closure.
Retail establishments can put out a merchandise table, shelving or rack, a mannequin and a sandwich board sign. Each participating business will get a 10-by-34-foot section of the street to use for tables or merchandise.
Breckenridge Tourism Office spokesperson Austyn Dineen said the section for Walkable Main will close Thursday afternoon so that the town can begin setting up. Dineen wrote in an email this process will involve marking the spaces on the street for where restaurants can put their tables, defining road closures and “setting up the look and feel of Walkable Main.”
“They’re going to go out and start marking where everything needs to be set up because they can’t do any of that while the street’s open, so they’ll be going through and measuring and marking,” Dineen wrote.
As for the barricades, Dineen said barriers would be set up and would be painted by a local artist. She said while there isn’t currently a specific time frame in mind for when the barriers would be painted, they will be “designed throughout the project.”
The release also notes that downtown Breckenridge guests can expect pop-up performances, demonstrations, workshops and art. The Riverwalk Center will host morning yoga, which will be run by local yoga studios. Dineen said yoga classes are typically put on by Bhava Yoga or Meta Yoga and that the classes are paid activities.
This should, at least, be interesting.
