Other than seeing heavy road construction equipment lined up along the frontage of Big Thompson Avenue west of Lakefront Street, there was no publicized clue that the Colorado Department of Transportation (CDOT) had changed course of action on its plan to upgrade Big Thompson Avenue.
Until Tuesday.
That is when the Town of Estes Park released CDOT press information letting people know that reconstruction of the thoroughfare would begin Sunday, July 7 at 7 p.m. Normal work hours for the highway crew is scheduled for 7 p.m. to 5 a.m. with no daytime work planned.
Until two weeks ago CDOT anticipated completing paving work underway on U.S. Highway 36 from Marys Lake Road west to Tunnel Road.
However, according to a July 3 email from CDOT representative Jared Feil, the decision to begin paving Big Thompson Avenue at night at this time came because that is what the Town of Estes Park wanted to see happen.
“They strongly encouraged us to transition to night work immediately after the Memorial Day holiday to ease some of the traffic challenges we experienced trying to haul asphalt through another active project to get to our project location,” Feil’s email said. “We were allowed by contract to continue working in the day only four days a week between Memorial Day and July 1, and the contractor opted to continue trying to work during the daytime.”
The owners and managers of a dozen lodging properties along the route with a combined room count of about 1,000, were called by CDOT’s Public Information team last week to inform them of the upcoming night work. The businesses also received email notices about the construction.
Residential areas in the area with about an equal number of residents, had no advance warning other than seeing the equipment alongside the road. Feil said postcards should be delivered sometime this week to all stakeholders within one mile of the project limits.
According to Feil’s email, “we have not had any concerns expressed directly about the hotels and the impact that the project will have on them. The project has discussed the impacts to the hotels and how we can work to minimize our impacts as much as possible.”
“The night work permit from Estes Park requires only white noise backup alarms to be used, so we should not have any vehicles or equipment with a beeping type backup alarm,” he added.
According to Feil, the night work permit only requires 48 hours’ notice to businesses and residents within 1000 feet of the work. The project has opted to send a postcard to every street address within one mile of the project limits as well as email and call to local businesses to inform them of the upcoming work well ahead of the minimum 48-hour requirement.
Feil said he had been given faulty information when just three weeks ago, he was adamant that the anticipated work to mill, reconfigure and repave Big Thompson Avenue from Mall Road to Steamer Drive would not occur at night.
According to Fiel, “the project is switching to night paving activities starting Sunday, July 7 at 7 p.m. We have switched work locations to pave the U.S. 34 portion of the project. The contractor mobilized their equipment to U.S. 34 to be ready for that work.”
“The project was unable to place a sufficient quantity of asphalt installed on U.S. 36 due to the heavy tourist traffic and close proximity to the Downtown Estes Loop project. We are refocusing our efforts where we are less likely to have traffic volume constraints to get more pavement installed. The milling and paving on Highway 36 have been postponed until the paving on Highway 34 has been completed,” Fiel added.