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BRECKENRIDGE — Construction widening a segment of Colorado 9 from Valley Brook Road to Fairview Boulevard is scheduled to run until fall 2010 — but with minimal traffic snarls.
Compared with last year's project between Agape Outpost Chapel and Swan Mountain Road, there will be “significantly less impact to the traveling public,” said Wes Goff, senior project manager with contractor PBS&J.
The roughly 1.5 mile project costing $9.25 million — including engineering costs — is financed solely through federal economic stimulus dollars, said Bob Smith, project manager with the Colorado Department of Transportation.
It will include four 12-foot-wide lanes with medians, curbs and gutters. New traffic signals, retaining walls and drainage improvements are also part of the project.
The segment of the recreation path near Valley Brook is getting re-routed to the west side of the Blue River, and a bridge is to be added. The path's improvements are to be complete by July 3, according to the town of Breckenridge.
Meanwhile its users have two options: a dirt pathway accessible through the Upper Blue Elementary School parking lot or a paved detour along Airport Road (see map).
The latter option involves sharing traffic with motorists; however, the Airport Road speed limit is reduced to 25 mph in this area to better accommodate pedestrians and cyclists, according to the town.
As for Colorado 9, traffic is to continue through the construction work in the existing two lanes. During the 2010 construction season, traffic will be flipped to the new west lanes while the existing lanes are re-paved — with all four to be open by fall.
Unlike the existing road's abrupt drop-off near the pavement's edge, improvements include a dirt shoulder extending west 6 feet — dropping only one foot — before the slope falls at a 15:1 ratio.
“It'll be much safer,” said Matt Kaup, project manager for Zak Dirt.
He said the embankment is to extend “basically out to where the bike (rec) path is now.”
Goff said this will require 127,000 cubic yards, or 228,600 tons, of dirt and rock. The material is to come from old dredge piles hauled from Everist Materials near the east end of Tiger Road.
About 1,500 feet of road extending south from Fairview Boulevard — to the point where traffic currently converges to two lanes — won't have the curb, gutter or wider shoulder on its west side similar to the rest of the project, because of financial constraints.
Goff said this part is expected to be improved once CDOT's next Colorado 9 improvement between Breckenridge and Frisco begins: a four-lane extension from about Tiger Road to the Agape Chapel.
Robert Allen can be contacted at (970) 668-4628 or rallen@summitdaily.com.
Compared with last year's project between Agape Outpost Chapel and Swan Mountain Road, there will be “significantly less impact to the traveling public,” said Wes Goff, senior project manager with contractor PBS&J.
The roughly 1.5 mile project costing $9.25 million — including engineering costs — is financed solely through federal economic stimulus dollars, said Bob Smith, project manager with the Colorado Department of Transportation.
It will include four 12-foot-wide lanes with medians, curbs and gutters. New traffic signals, retaining walls and drainage improvements are also part of the project.
The segment of the recreation path near Valley Brook is getting re-routed to the west side of the Blue River, and a bridge is to be added. The path's improvements are to be complete by July 3, according to the town of Breckenridge.
Meanwhile its users have two options: a dirt pathway accessible through the Upper Blue Elementary School parking lot or a paved detour along Airport Road (see map).
The latter option involves sharing traffic with motorists; however, the Airport Road speed limit is reduced to 25 mph in this area to better accommodate pedestrians and cyclists, according to the town.
As for Colorado 9, traffic is to continue through the construction work in the existing two lanes. During the 2010 construction season, traffic will be flipped to the new west lanes while the existing lanes are re-paved — with all four to be open by fall.
Unlike the existing road's abrupt drop-off near the pavement's edge, improvements include a dirt shoulder extending west 6 feet — dropping only one foot — before the slope falls at a 15:1 ratio.
“It'll be much safer,” said Matt Kaup, project manager for Zak Dirt.
He said the embankment is to extend “basically out to where the bike (rec) path is now.”
Goff said this will require 127,000 cubic yards, or 228,600 tons, of dirt and rock. The material is to come from old dredge piles hauled from Everist Materials near the east end of Tiger Road.
About 1,500 feet of road extending south from Fairview Boulevard — to the point where traffic currently converges to two lanes — won't have the curb, gutter or wider shoulder on its west side similar to the rest of the project, because of financial constraints.
Goff said this part is expected to be improved once CDOT's next Colorado 9 improvement between Breckenridge and Frisco begins: a four-lane extension from about Tiger Road to the Agape Chapel.
Robert Allen can be contacted at (970) 668-4628 or rallen@summitdaily.com.
