Construction is planned for part of U.S. Highway 160 west, Camino del Rio and north Main Avenue this spring.
The Colorado Department of Transportation plans to spend $6 million to smooth and patch the surface of 4 miles of road and paint new bike lanes.
“In order to prolong the service life, we are going to improve roadway smoothness,” said CDOT resident engineer David Valentinelli.
The work will extend the life of the road by 18 years, and it is much cheaper than reconstruction, he told the Durango City Council. If the department had to reconstruct the road, it could cost $70 million.
The construction is expected to start March 8 and is scheduled to be completed by May 19, before Memorial Day, when tourist traffic starts to increase.
“We really hope to minimize impact to travelers in the community,” Valentinelli said.
The dates could change if the project is affected by weather, said Ed Archuleta, CDOT’s program engineer, in an interview.
“We need to be flexible,” he said.
CDOT selected ACME Concrete Paving, based in Spokane, Washington, to do the construction, Valentinelli said.
The contractor will have financial incentives for finishing on time or early, he said.
Work will likely be spread out along the corridor. But it has not been decided exactly how the project will be phased, Archuleta said.
Two travel lanes are expected to be open in both directions from 9 a.m. until 4 p.m., although as crews are patching the roads, travel lanes could be blocked at times, Valentinelli said.
One travel lane in each direction will be open at other times, he said. Crews will be working overnight on the project as well, and the project has been issued a variance to the city’s noise ordinance, according to Valentinelli’s presentation.
Construction is not scheduled on Sunday, although it is possible that it could happen at times if work is delayed by weather, Valentinelli said in an interview.
In addition to repairing the road, CDOT will grind off the impressions of old lane lines that some drivers find confusing, said Lisa Schwantes, spokeswoman for CDOT.
Some of these old lanes are particularly visible at the intersection of U.S. Highways 550/160.
New bike lanes on either side of the highway will be placed five feet from the edge of the curb, and grates on storm drains will be replaced so that bike tires can move across them, Valentinelli said. This will narrow the travel lanes for cars, he said.
The new bike lanes fulfill one of the city’s top projects in its multimodal master plan, said Amber Blake, the city’s director of transportation and sustainability.
CDOT expects to hold an open house for the public to learn more about the project in late February.
mshinn@durangoherald.com
