The contract to replace the two 1930s vintage bridges on Bayfield Parkway might go out for bid in August or September, Town Manager Chris La May told town trustees on July 21. Asked this week if he still has that expectation, he hesitated. "That's optimistic," he said.
The project has been delayed for many months by required environmental and endangered species assessments, mitigation plans, and permits.
The town originally planned to replace the bridges in 2014, with the cost estimated at around $3 million. The estimate is now more than $5 million.
The town has received two grants totalling $1.4 million from the Colorado Department of Transportation off-system bridge program for the replacements, plus $261,000 from CDOT's transportation alternative program (TAP) to add a bike/ pedestrian trail from Eagle Park under the main bridge and looping back to Joe Stephenson Park. It will go north along the west side of the park, across the north end of the park below the irrigation ditch and back south to the bathrooms.
"Together the grants approach 33 percent of the total project cost," La May said in his July 21 staff report. The rest will come from the remainder of the $6.8 million CDOT paid the town in 2011 to take over Bayfield Parkway from end to end.
The grants include federal money, "so we have to make sure everything complies with Federal Highway Administration requirements," La May said this week. "They bring in their environmental, right-of-way, materials, and public relations people to meet with our (project) team. They go page by page through the plan to see if there are any outstanding issues before we go out for bids."
At the July 21 meeting, La May reported that if more than one-tenth of an acre of stream or wetland is impacted, the town must get a Section 404 permit from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. That sets off other requirements. He described the town proposals to satisfy assorted wetland and species mitigation requirements.
La May listed 0.29 acres of permanent impacts and 1.04 acres of temporary impacts. He showed aerial maps of the project area, with the main wetland on the south side of the road between the bridges, also both sides of the river just south of the main bridge. There will be impacts where the path goes under the bridge and for construction of the bridge abutments.
The 404 permit from the Corps requires consultation with U.S. Fish & Wildlife. That's where critical habitat for the endangered Southwest willow flycatcher comes in.
On July 21, La May showed a proposed wetland mitigation site (0.02 acres) where cottonwood trees will be planted between the skate park and the river. The other proposed wetland replacement site will be in the town natural area between North Street and Highway 160. It also will be replacement habitat for the flycatcher.
At the Aug. 4 board meeting, he said the Corps of Engineers doesn't agree with the town's replacement ratios and wants the wetland replacement area by the skate park to be 0.2 acres instead of 0.02 acres. They also want more total wetland replacement. He now thinks it will be more cost effective to buy replacement credits from the Animas River wetland bank created by the Zink family.
But the town still has to replace the wetland critical habitat for the flycatcher, even though there is no evidence of the bird's actual presence, La May said. The town will claim that as credit against what it will buy from the wetland bank. The river corridor and town natural area are listed as critical habitat for the bird. The natural area already has a replacement wetland and flycatcher habitat created about 10 years ago.
"We also had to look at state threatened and endangered species," La May said on July 21. Bald eagles are on the state list as likely to be significantly impacted. The winter nesting avoidance period starts Nov. 15. He advised the town had applied for a "take permit," which means work could continue despite an eagle's presence, "that there could potentially be loss of an eagle."
He reported to trustees on Aug. 4 that the take permit was denied. He's trying to determine what that means for the project.
"Right now the window to get (the prroject) started is Sept. 15 to Nov. 15 when the eagle roosting comes in. If Fish & Wildlife doesn't see it as a concern, I'm trying to find out if we can work after Nov. 15. It's an eight month project. With the eagle, if we get in there and start working, the chances of the bald eagle roosting are less, and we can continue working."
But there's another issue, now apparently resolved, and yet another.
In his July 21 written staff report, La May said, "We are having some back and forth negotiations with the Colorado State Historical Protection Office. They are stating that we are impacting the historic eligibility of the Gosney property due to a new driveway" between the two bridges. It's the old slaughterhouse on the north side of the road. The driveway will be reconfigured as part of the bridge project.
La May said on Aug. 4 that he has verbal clearance on that issue, but he's waiting for something in writing. And now there's an issue about brown trout.
"The brown trout took me for a loop today," he told the Times. "I don't have enough information. There's a breeding period we'll probably have to consider."
The bridges are listed as functionally obsolete because they don't meet current standards. The town had a final engineering review with CDOT on Aug. 4.
