Highway 71 Improvement Project Underway Next Week

Work consists of asphalt paving, embankment improvements, and new seeding and striping, beginning 10 miles north of Limon, and continuing north to Last Chance.

Flaggers will alternate northbound and southbound traffic through one or two work zones, with delays between five to 10 minutes, from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m., Monday through Friday.  Some work will be scheduled on Saturdays, as necessary.  The speed limit also will be reduced to 40 mph and vehicles wider than 12 feet will not be allowed to travel through the area during work hours.

“We’re recycling the top layer of asphalt on this project and reusing it as a base surface,” says CDOT Resident Engineer Travis Miller.  “New asphalt then will be placed atop it, providing the traveling public with a smoother road surface that’ll last at least ten years.”

Recycling asphalt on the project is saving taxpayers approximately $1.8 million.

The $9 million project, contracted to Simon Contractors of Cheyenne, WY, is scheduled for completion in October 2012.

This segment of SH 71 was constructed in the mid-1960s and has received primarily maintenance treatments since then. The last resurfacing through the area was only five miles long and occurred in 1987.  CDOT is replacing a distressed road surface that has moderate to high amounts of cracking.

Traffic information about this or other CDOT projects is on the cotrip.org website, by calling 511 or via subscription e-mail.  To subscribe, please 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 Northeast Colorado (Everything East of I-25 and North of I-70).