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Gas line construction delays anger residents, city

Noise, dust frustrate neighborhoods, businesses

Construction to replace aging natural gas lines has brought dust, noise and delays to Durango’s neighborhoods, angering residents and city officials.

Some residents living and working near Atmos Energy’s construction projects have been baffled by delays, holes that have been filled and later re-dug and incorrect information about the timing of projects.

“I think many people in the community are frustrated,” said Scott Chism, a resident of East Park Avenue.

Atmos Energy’s contractors started working in April. The permit issued to two of the three contractors, Q3 Contracting and Crossfire, has been extended twice, City Engineer Gregg Boysen said in an email.

At one point, the city shut the contractors down and had them fill in excavated sections because they were moving on from neighborhoods without completing the projects, City Manager Ron LeBlanc said. He was unaware contractors later re-dug some holes they had filled.

“I have never seen a project this bad,” he said.

But the city is probably not going to fine the company.

“We would have to put together a case and persuade a judge to issue a fine,” LeBlanc said. “Not likely to happen.”

The quality, timeliness of the work and the communication with the neighborhoods has not been acceptable, he said.

The city’s communication with Atmos also has been difficult, he said.

“They are really not committed to this community,” he said.

The project has been delayed by rock, subsurface obstructions and design changes, Atmos Energy spokesman Darwin Winfield said in an email. The city’s requests for an increased focus on restoration of roads and alleys also slowed the project, he said.

To encourage some contractors to complete projects in a timely manner, the city charges a daily fee for working on city streets, Boysen said.

However, Atmos pays an occupation tax to the city, so it does not pay daily fees, LeBlanc said.

Atmos Energy is the only local provider of natural gas, serving about 13,500 customers in La Plata County. Last year, the Public Utilities Commission of Colorado allowed Atmos to institute a rate increase to customers with the sole purpose of raising money for a statewide initiative to upgrade its natural gas lines.

Atmos did not disclose the cost of the upgrades in Durango, but the company pays contractors a lump sum based on the bid, so the delays will not significantly increase the cost of the project, Darwin said.

The expected completion date for all projects south of 14th Street is Oct. 14, he said.

The next stage of work in the alley between Main Avenue and East Second Avenue and 14th and 15th streets is scheduled to start in early November, he said.

Crews could return next summer to replace more gas lines, but it is unknown where that work may happen, he said.

Some residents said they would like see such gas line projects managed differently.

At Durango Cyclery on 13th Street, construction lasted for three weeks in the adjacent alley, and the next week it wrapped around the front of the building, surrounding the business, Manager Garrett Alexander said.

This discouraged customers from coming in and filled the business with dust because workers did not use water to control it, he said.

“I had to tell them to stop because it just coated our entire shop,” he said.

He sees the need for updated gas lines, but the communication about the work was a problem, he said.

He wasn’t informed correctly about when construction would start and received only guesstimates about completion.

Residents near the Mason Center had a similar experience.

For months, Terra Brooke tried to be understanding when crews used a private lot next to her home for heavy equipment and dirt storage. But eventually the noise and dust became overwhelming for Brooke, who works from home, and she filed a complaint with Atmos. Last week, the lot was cleared, but work to install secondary service lines in the area is ongoing.

In the future, she would like to see better planning around the staging area for construction equipment.

“It seems like an opportunity for better communication between the city and contractors so future projects aren’t such a mess,” she said.

Her neighbor, Julie Meadows, spent hours on the phone with people from the city, Atmos and contractors trying to understand the delays she observed near her home on 13th Street and found all the parties blaming each other.

She was particularly frustrated when holes that had been filled in and paved had to excavated again.

The holes were temporarily filled to “minimize the inconvenience on the residents,” and they were placed at the city’s request, Winfield said.

The company had planned simply to cover the holes with steel plates.

It is likely that some patches will not meet city standards and crews will have to replace those, Boysen said.

The city will make sure roads are repaired to a condition that is equal to or better than what was in place before the construction, he said.

mshinn@durangoherald.com

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