Colorado Springs expanded street paving begins in May
A Colorado Springs oversight committee announced Wednesday that an expanded street paving program will start in three weeks — six months after gaining voter support.
The 2C Advisory Committee formed by Mayor John Suthers held its second quarterly meeting and said the paving will begin the first week of May.
“We’ll slowly build to a peak in July and then scale down toward fall,” said Corey Farkas, manager of the Streets Division.
Farkas said three contractors bid for the project and the city has chosen two to negotiate with — Martin Marietta and Schmidt Construction. Each would do half the work if all sides reach an agreement.
“The contractors will have one-year contracts with options for additional years,” he said.
Farkas said with one exception, the list of streets to be paved this year hasn’t changed, but the order of paving for some streets has changed.
“For example, Flintridge (Drive) south of Academy (Boulevard) won’t be paved this year because of utility work,” he said. “We’ll have to reschedule that.”
Don Knight, a city councilman and committee member, expressed concern about inspecting the quality of paving work because the project calls for city inspectors to monitor the same contractors instead of rotating between them.
“We want to make sure that we have consistency as this work is done across the city,” he said. “These might be just minor points, but I think it’s important. I don’t think we need to inspect daily, but we don’t want annually, either. I’m hoping we can work that out.”
Generally, the committee seems satisfied with the progress of the paving project.
“Yes, there will be problems with traffic congestion,” said Dave Zelenok, a committee member. “We’d like to ask for the patience of the traveling public as these crews work their way around the community.”
Drivers appear eager to see the work begin.
“It sounds like it’s a good idea,” said Benjamin Walton. “Do it before it’s too late. Hopefully, they do it well and not do too much digging. Because sometimes, they tend to mess up.”
“The worst part about it is the damage (potholes do) to our cars,” said Meghan Conover. “So it’s awesome that they’re starting (the paving) up.”
In a related matter, Farkas said the city obtained an unspecified amount of money from the Pikes Peak Rural Transportation Authority that will be used to pave some neighborhood streets.
“Most of the 2C money is paving major streets where most of the traffic is,” he said. “But we realize many side streets need paving, too. We’re trying to address that as best as we can.”
Farkas said the money will be spent to pave streets in the Old Farm neighborhood of northeast Colorado Springs. He didn’t specify when that paving will happen.
The committee reported that the sales tax increase generated revenue of $3 million in January. February figures are not yet available.
“But January is our slowest month,” Suthers said. “As paving work gears up, revenue collections will, too.”
