A fourth open house for the U.S. 6, Heritage Road interchange project held Oct. 13 focused on designs and amenities for the multimodal deck.

The deck is where pedestrians and bicyclist will cross over U.S. 6.

Four concept were presented at the virtual open house, in which participants gave their input through an online portal. Of the 54 attendees, most have lived in Golden more than 11 years and the majority passes through the intersection up for discussion daily.

Each concept drew inspiration from local geological and architectural elements. Of the four concepts, the one that got the most positive feedback from open house attendees was focused on sandstone outcrop. Features included a climbing boulder, meadow planting, stone and shrubs and rich colors to mimic sandstone formations.

During the discussion, attendees said that they felt this concept felt most like Golden, but were worried that using synthetic rock material to mimic sandstone might look fake.

The second most liked concept focused on open space. It included native vegetation, grasses with stone walls, a free play area and seating. The architectural element mimicked the incinerator chimney on the fairway of hole 1 at Fossil trace Golf Course, giving a nod to the area’s clay mining history.

Meeting attendees loved the chimney element of this design, but questioned if picnic tables and a children’s play space were needed.

A quarter of the meeting participants voted to combine elements from two or more concepts to create a new concept. Many in the discussion wanted to make the design simple and more cost effective.

Moving forward, the design team will take feedback and create renderings of the final design.

“These types of sessions and your comments are very helpful to us to put something together that meets as many desires as possible,” said Dan Hartman, Golden public works director. “The work that needs to be done now by the engineers is fairly detailed and it will take some time.”

He also said to expect renderings for a final design in winter or early spring. At that time, there will be another meeting to look and make suggestions. But the team will only be able to tweak the design, not create something new.

Anyone interested in the project can voice their opinions on the multimodal deck and other elements of the interchange through a survey on www.guidinggolden.com through Oct. 27. Presentations from all four open houses are also available on the site.