#Summit County, Colorado.
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| Summit County / Special to the Daily |
With a fresh layer of pavement in place, construction in Summit Cove wrapped up just in time for the first fall frosts. Columbine Hills Concrete completed the much-needed repaving project last weekend, adding bike lanes and repaving a large stretch of Cove Boulevard.
“We’re getting fantastic feedback. I’m thrilled,” assistant county manager Thad Noll said. “We’re going to do more projects like this where we get neighborhood deeply engaged early on.”
Noll added that the final cost of the project came in lower than Columbine’s $741,000 bid, which was already significantly cheaper than the county’s estimates.
While the project came to a close after the planned Aug. 30 completion date, with rainy summer weather and multiple contractors working simultaneously, Summit County senior planner Kate Berg said the project came together smoothly.
“There were some delays with the extent of the side work that needed to happen with this phase. It made sense to minimize the disturbance to residents,” she added. “We figured if we got this section done first, it would help us get things dialed in, so we could implement things that are more complicated more smoothly.”
For the final project, the road was widened two feet on each side to allow room for four feet of bike lanes in the roadway. In addition, brand-new mailboxes were installed. The side roads of Idlewild Drive, Vail Circle, Meadow Drive and Hideaway Court were repaved using the Cutler process, where old asphalt is melted down to form a base layer to remove stubborn cracks.
“This section of the neighborhood contains side roads that neighbors said were most in need repair. We wanted to respond to those concerns,” Berg said.
Once shoulder season ends, Summit County will begin discussing the next two phases of the project: finishing the rest of Cove Boulevard past Summit Cove Elementary and linking it to Summit Drive to complete the loop.
“Once we finalize the budget, we will have a sense of what will be involved in all of road and bridge projects for next year,” Summit County public affairs coordinator Julie Sutor said.
Future plans include larger, buffered bike lanes, sidewalks going into the school zone and improved crosswalks. Berg said the county would coordinate with Summit Cove Elementary to design safety improvements along the school zone.
She said all of the parties involved would start coordinating soon to make plans for construction over the next two years to wrap up phase two and three of the project and complete the loop. She said it would be a matter of timing to coordinate with the timing of the school, the county and Cutler Repaving, if more extensive work to side roads is needed.
“I think we’re gonna get into some serious planning discussions once things are wrapped up for the fall,” Berg said. “There are just a lot of balls in the air right now, and we’re not sure how it’s gonna shake out.”
Courtesy of the Summit Daily News.
