Road work will be the plan for Brighton’s summer

BY SCOTT TAYLOR STAYLOR@COLORADOCOMMUNITYMEDIA.COM

More work on Brighton’s roads is on the schedule for this summer, councilors agreed June 13.

City Councilors reviewed a $3.9 million contract to do smaller road reconstruction maintenance projects around the city.

Noe Martinez, Brighton Public Works engineering manager said the work will have three focus areas: xing and patching potholes and stealing small cracks to preserve the city’s road base, make roads safer for bicyclists and pedestrians and to calm tra c in some areas.

Councilors were scheduled to approve a resolution approving the work at their June 20 meeting.

But Mayor Greg Mills said he wished it could be more.

“I feel like we spent more last year, and as a council, we want to spend even more,” Mills said. “We want to make a bigger impact on making our streets better. It’s the top complaint we all get.”

Mills pointed to the condition of 4th Avenue as it runs in front of City Hall, noting it was recently repaired but has cracked and eroding asphalt now.

“It’s in piss poor shape now, and I’m not even sure it’s going to make it through the winter,” Mills said. “Honestly, I would prefer us to move that work up.” e city spent $4.1 million on road maintenance projects in 2022. City

Manager Michael Martinez said work on 4th Avenue is scheduled for 2024.

Mills said if it’s too late to expand projects this year, he’d want council to consider more road reconstruction in 2024.

“I think you have a council here that supports spending more money if there is money to be spent on making our roads better,” Mills said.

Councilor Peter Padilla pointed out that councilors approved another big road project last month.

“While this is road preservation, we are spending $20 million on Bridge Street,” Padilla said. “If you say we are spending less on roads this year, I actually think we are spending ve times as much.” e Bridge Street project will use 35 million pounds of asphalt, and 13,000 feet of storm pipe. Plans call for adding four new tra c lights and one small bridge structure. It should take 590 working days.

Road repairs elsewhere will cover two miles around the city in various places while the city adds another mile-and-a-half of new bike lanes and more than four miles of new roadway striping, Martinez said.

Pot holes and speed tables e work calls for using an estimated 51,000 pounds of crack-seal asphalt and 3.9 miles of slurry and stone chips to ll potholes and cracks. In all, crews will do maintenance work on some 1.7 miles of streets, with full reconstruction work planned on another thirdof-a-mile.

Martinez e orts to preserve the city’s road base rely on the same methods.

“In previous years we’ve taken different kinds of approaches, including crack sealing, full reconstruction, hot chip slurry and stone mastic asphalt,” Martinez said.

Crack selling involves lling small cracks with hot asphalt. A hot chip slurry involves lling a small hole with asphalt then rolling pea gravel on top while stone mastic asphalt involves ling larger holes with a mix of asphalt and gravel or small stone aggregate. For a reconstruction, crews remove part of the asphalt and rebuild a new road surface.

““ is year, we’ll take a similar approach, making sure we are using the right approach to address any situations,” Martinez said.

Martinez said work to make the roads safer for pedestrians and bike riders includes creating new bike lines for dedicated bike travel, new curb ramps for bicycles and wheelchairs and new crosswalks.

Project plans call for adding street tables along 42nd Avenue and near Southeast Elementary School to slow tra c there.

“We are doing sidewalks, speed tables and making sure the striping along the roads is consistent with safer tra c,” he said.

“I want to point out that two of the projects are near schools, and that’s especially where we want to implement the safety portions — the cross- walks, the signs and tra c calming devices like speed tables,” he said. e council’s approval lets the city and contractors begin pre-construction meetings right away, Assistant Public Works Director Chris Montoya said. e current plan calls for working on the south side lanes of Bridge Street rst.

Bridge Street widening.

Work widening a mile-and-a-half stretch of Bridge Street is scheduled to start soon this summer. Plans call for widening the road between 22nd and 42nd avenues, a project that will last at least two years. Councilors gave the project preliminary approval in April, allowing them to begin taking bids to do the work.

Councilors approved the nal bid from Brannon Sand and Gravel as general contractors for $19.5 million on June 6.

“We can begin construction right after the Fourth of July holiday,” he said at the June 6 meeting. “We should see construction out there relatively soon.” e work includes a complete sidewalk along the southern side of the road but not along the northern side. e city does not have the rights-ofway from property owners along the way that would allow them to do that work.

Montoya said the work will require sta to close lanes during the work but that tra c will remain open during the construction.