Four Bridges Project Set to Start

October 15, 2010 - FASTER Funds Accelerate Structure Replacements in Southeastern Colorado - Southeastern Colorado/CDOT Region 2 - CROWLEY/KIOWA COUNTIES – The Colorado Department of Transportation (CDOT) begins a project next week that replaces four timber bridges on State Highway (SH) 96, between Ordway and Eads.

Structures will be removed and replaced at:

1.    Black Draw (mile 114.5), four miles east of Sugar City – built 1932

2.    Unnamed Draw (mile 121.1), nine miles west of Arlington – built 1948

3.    Unnamed Draw (mile 123.2), seven miles west of Arlington – built 1948

4.    Unnamed Draw (mile 141.9), two miles west of Haswell – built 1936

Work at each location involves removing the old bridge and building a new bridge, road reconstruction, asphalt paving, erosion control, seeding, mulching, signing and striping.

Bridges 1 and 2 will be replaced first, and both are expected to open to traffic in January 2011.  Work then begins on bridges 3 and 4, with completion expected in May 2011.

Construction begins on Monday, October 18.  Traffic stops up to 10 minutes should be expected between 7 a.m. and 5:30 p.m., Monday through Friday, while a short, one-lane paved detour is built at each site.  The detours are expected to open at the first two sites in mid-November.  Traffic signals then will alternate eastbound and westbound traffic through each work zone, 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

“Each bridge is more than 60 years old and each one is structurally-deficient,” said CDOT Resident Engineer Paul Westhoff.  “In addition, about 30 percent of the vehicles that travel Highway 96 between Eads and Ordway are large trucks so installing new structures, as well as widening shoulders, is a safety enhancement.”

Structures, Inc., of Englewood, Colo. is the prime contractor.

FASTER – Funding Advancements for Surface Transportation and Economic Recovery – is fully funding the $2.9 million project.  Financed by vehicle registration fees, FASTER established a Statewide Bridge Enterprise, funding the maintenance and repair of Colorado’s most urgent structurally-deficient and functionally-obsolete bridges.  Additional information is accessible at: www.coloradodot.info/projects/faster.

Updated information regarding traffic impacts on this or other CDOT projects is available at www.dot.state.co.us/TravelInfo/currentcond/ or by calling 511.  To receive project updates via e-mail, visit www.coloradodot.info and click on the cell-phone icon in the upper right-hand corner.  The link takes you to a list of items you can subscribe to, including Southeast Colorado.