Los Alamos board weighs Ashley Pond barrier replacement options
County officials are weighing three ways to replace Ashley Pond’s jersey barriers, with a June 30 council meeting still open to public input.
Los Alamos County Transportation Board members met June 22 in Municipal Building Council Chambers to weigh three replacement options for the Jersey barriers along Ashley Pond Park. The county also offered a Zoom option.
The choices now on the table are bollards, a bollard-and-planter mix, or boulders with native plants. Each would handle the same basic job differently: keep vehicles from reaching the park edge off Trinity Drive, preserve access for crowds at summer concerts and other park events, and either soften or reinforce the look of one of Los Alamos’ most visible public spaces.
The temporary barriers were reinstalled May 16 along the southern side of Ashley Pond Park. They protect spectators at summer concerts and park-goers from deliberate or accidental vehicle incursions from Trinity Drive, but they are seasonal, on loan and visually unattractive. For the 2026 season, crews painted them green to reduce their impact on the park’s appearance.
This is a $200,000 project now in preliminary design, with Los Alamos County aiming to have a permanent installation in place by mid-May 2027 and ready for the 2027 summer concert season. Groundworks Studio has developed three preliminary concepts, and the county has already put the matter before several boards, including the Historic Preservation Advisory Board, the Transportation Board, the Parks and Recreation Board and County Council.
The county has held presentations on June 4, June 10 and June 11, and the County Council is scheduled to hear the project June 30 at 6 p.m. at the Municipal Building Council Chambers. Residents can still weigh in through the county’s consultation process before council settles on the permanent barrier treatment for Ashley Pond Park.
The Transportation Board and the Historic Preservation Advisory Board unanimously recommended the boulder option, while the Parks and Recreation Board favored whichever option the public selected. The county’s survey had drawn 507 responses by June 24, with 69 percent supporting natural rocks, 18 percent favoring planters and bollards and 13 percent choosing bollards.
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