High Line Canal Trail Opens to the Public after Emergency Culvert Repair
The project began in August and, after careful planning and resourcefulness, crews were able to complete the project in 30 days and open it back up to the public in early September.
Emergency repairs were necessary at this location after a culvert failed following a severe storm, which caused a significant amount of backfill material around the pipe to enter the ditch and get washed downstream. The 10-foot multi-use trail above the culvert was severely undermined and was no longer properly supported.
“This location sees a lot of traffic each day as it is a popular trail cyclists use for recreation and to commute to work,” said Carrie DeJiacomo, CDOT program engineer. “The damage was so severe and the normal time needed to develop a project wasn’t acceptable. We treat bike paths as a major corridor for communities. The longer it’s out of commission, the longer it takes for someone to get to where they’re going, so we carefully expedited the project.”
The Highlands Ranch Metro District notified CDOT of the issue and, after a field visit and an emergency meeting, CDOT began an emergency project. This designation allows for CDOT to abbreviate all aspects of project delivery. In doing so, CDOT scoped, designed and advertised the project in five days.
CDOT engineers and Jalisco International found equipment and materials that would work efficiently and effectively to complete the project in a timely manner.
“Our customers are our priority,” said DeJiacomo. “We want to be sure they are safe and we also want to make sure that we have as little impact on them as possible.”
Due to the continuous high water in the ditch, CDOT and Jalisco International went through great lengths to properly dam the ditch with sandbags, by-pass pump and efficiently diffuse the discharge back into the ditch.
“We’d like to thank the community for being patient as we worked on the emergency repairs of the High Line Canal Trail,” said DeJiacomo. “The help we received from this community made this project successful.”
For information on other projects, visit http://www.cotrip.org/ro
