Smoother Path for Drivers and Bikers in Denver Area
In July, the Colorado Dept. of Transportation started one of its largest stimulus-funded transportation projects with the multimodal rehabilitation of nine miles of the C-470 highway between Interstate 25 and Santa Fe Drive, south of Denver, and an adjacent bike path.
The $22.3-million project, entirely funded with American Recovery and Reinvestment Act dollars, will repair or replace highway concrete base slabs and then pave the entire stretch with asphalt. Crews also will repair concrete slabs along 26 miles, or more than half, of the heavily traveled bike path between I-25 and Interstate 70.
“The concrete repairs along the corridor were part of CDOT’s five-year pavement maintenance plan. The department just didn’t have the funding to do more than a mile at a time,” says Ron Buck, CDOT resident engineer.
Working only on weekends, C-470 contractor Castle Rock Construction Co., Centennial, Colo., and its team already has completed repairs to concrete slabs along the westbound lanes. “By working weekends, we can get more work accomplished than we could in five nights, and we improve safety and quality,” says Scott Smith, CDOT project engineer.
Castle Rock, working under a $22.3-million contract, now has started concrete repairs on the eastbound lanes, work that will continue through fall and winter, Buck says. “We just started some of the asphalt work along the westbound lanes but will put asphalt work on hold due to cold weather,” he says. “We are currently on schedule to have all concrete work completed by June 2010.”
The project is scheduled to be complete by August 2010.
One of C-470’s busiest sections, the corridor currently carries 80,000 to 100,000 vehicles per day. CDOT’s August job statistics show the C-470 project has created or saved approximately 246 jobs for Castle Rock. Its subcontractors and project consultants have worked more than 8,000 hours, CDOT reports.
| Jobs Created | Total: 246 |
|---|---|
| ARRA Contract Amount | $22.3 Million |
This year, economic conditions forced the transportation agency to cut more than $400 million from its 2008 budget level. With approximately $403 million of federal stimulus money coming to the state for road and bridge projects, Colorado is barely back to originally expected funding levels, compared to 2008, says Pam Hutton, CDOT chief engineer.
