Highway 73 improvement project in Evergreen put on hold

BY DEB HURLEY BROBST DBROBST@COLORADOCOMMUNITYMEDIA.COM

Evergreen drivers can breathe a sigh of relief for a while because Highway 73 construction plans near downtown Evergreen have been put on hold.

A perfect storm has led to Je erson County planning to revamp the project to improve the road from Bu alo Park Road to downtown Evergreen. e county hopes to ask for bids in January with work expected to start this spring at the earliest, according to Mike Vanatta, the assistant director for Je erson County’s transportation and engineering division.

Here’s why:

First, when the county requested bids this summer for the complex 22-month-long, $11 million project, it only heard from one interested construction company, Vanatta said. e project, which is primarily funded by a Federal Highway Administration grant, requires several bids to choose from.

Second, the contractor interested in the project was concerned about working through the winter when temperatures and conditions make construction di cult, he said. ird, thanks to the tra c delays for utilities work that crippled movement in Evergreen for the last two months on Highway 73 plus creating a plan that doesn’t include winter construction, Vanatta wants to split up the project.

Fourth, Vanatta is concerned that bids for the project as it is currently designed will be much higher than the $11 million budgeted for the project, so he wants to shrink it, keeping the most vital parts. He said if the project goes over budget, the extra funds would come from Jeffco co ers, taking away from other projects.

“I will be talking to (the Je erson County) commissioners, walking through some options, and giving them some ideas I have,” Vanatta said. “ en we’ll go forward from there.”

Vanatta said he met with principals of the schools most a ected by the change, Wilmot Elementary, Evergreen Middle and Evergreen High, and he watched them breathe a sigh of relief that parents and buses would not have to tackle getting through the construction zone. Because of the change, Evergreen High School will allow students to leave during lunch, something the school planned to stop this year, so students didn’t add to congestion during construction, principal Skyler Artes said.

Nancy Judge, president of the Evergreen Area Chamber of Commerce, said the road construction in Evergreen this summer, which included the detour thanks to construction of the Evergreen Lake North Trail, has made Evergreen weary.

“ is is certainly good news for downtown businesses for the holiday season, students at the high school, and all of us who travel between north and south Evergreen,” she said.

Megan Mitchell, president of the Evergreen Downtown Business Association, added that the association was glad Je co will be putting more thought into the project.

“Tra c is a major concern for the downtown businesses,” she said.

“We were looking forward to all the improvements to the area.” e project was expected to widen Highway 73, add a bike lane and a pedestrian trail, improve safety at the intersection with Bu alo Park Road and improve ood controls.

Vanatta said about 25,000 cars travel that area of road, and improvements are necessary for safety, especially in case of evacuation because of wild re.

It’s been 23 years since Evergreen has seen extended construction near downtown. In 2000, the Colorado Department of Transportation made improvements and widened the intersection of Highway 73/74.

Other details

Vanatta promised that residents would have a chance to respond to the new plans for improving the road, hopefully in September, and the county will advertise the new project and solicit comments.

“I’d like to break it up a little bit and not make it such a massive project,” Vanatta said. “We are working on some ideas of how to do that but still accomplish the original idea of the project.”

For example, the bridge over Little Cub Creek Road at Highway 73 needs replacement, so that will be among the rst projects under the new parameters.

Vanatta said the project was between a mountainside and creek, which makes keeping two lanes of tra c moving di cult, and suggestions that the work should be done only at night increases the costs and would be unbearable for neighbors.

Backups on Highway 73 to get through Evergreen have been as long as 45 minutes as utility crews move and replace lines in anticipation of a large improvement project from Bu alo Park Road to downtown Evergreen. Je erson County has decided to put the improvement project on hold until it can reconfigure the project.

Vanatta said the majority of the utility work — and the one-lane closures — will be done by the time school starts, and part of the road will be repaved Aug. 20-21 during nighttime hours.

“Since the road’s been totally potholed and dug up and has a lot of cracks in it, we are going to have Road and Bridge mill and pave the road from Assist-to-Sell through the Bu alo Park Road intersection,” Vanatta said. “We have to get it xed before wintertime regardless.” e project will be funded with a grant of $8.75 million from the Federal Highway Administration, with Je erson County’s share estimated at $2.19 million. Vanatta said to keep the grant, its scope must remain the same but the timeline can be elongated.

“It’s still tricky, but I think we can accomplish a reasonable project with what we have,” Vanatta said.