One year later: Governor lauds CDOT recovery work

September 8, 2014 - Northeastern Colorado/CDOT Region 4 - BOULDER AND LARIMER COUNTIES — Standing at the site of some of the worst destruction of last year’s floods at US 36 just out of Lyons, Gov. John Hickenlooper on Mondaycommended the work of the Colorado Department of Transportation as the organization is about to complete the first of many permanent recovery projects.

“The flooding will forever be a part of our history, but not as much, I hope, for the devastation that it caused, but more for the extraordinary resiliency Coloradans demonstrated during the flood and afterward,” said Hickenlooper who was joined by Sen. Mark Udall and Rep. Cory Gardner as well as CDOT Executive Director Don Hunt.

“A crisis like the flood doesn’t determine your culture as an agency,” Hunt said. “Instead, your agency culture determines the response to the crisis.”

After the floods devastated so much of the state last year, 486 miles of roads were closed. CDOT moved quickly to have all of the state roads open by Nov. 27. Those temporary fixes were made to get the roads open and restore some normalcy following the disaster.

US 36 from Lyons to Estes Park was selected as the first permanent repair project for the state. Under Hickenlooper’s charge to build our roads back better than before, engineers designed the permanent fixes on US 36 to move the road further away from the river and have the road on bedrock so it won’t be washed away in any future floods.

“We don’t want the people in Estes Park to ever get cut off again,” said Johnny Olson, regional transportation director who also gave updates on the other 25 flood projects around the state. Olson also unveiled CDOT’s new flood recovery website which provides project information for CDOT and local agency flood projects around the state. The site is http://www.coloradodot.info/projects/floodrelatedprojects