Five-year street paving project starts in Colorado Springs

The east end of Rockrimmon Boulevard was the first to get a new layer of asphalt Thursday to officially start an expanded paving project in Colorado Springs.

Wet weather delayed the initial kickoff event three weeks ago.

The project is financed by last fall’s voter-approved sales tax increase expected to generate $250 million during the next five years.

“We have $10 million from the first three months of this year,” Mayor John Suthers said. “We should have around $46 million by the end of the year. It will take time to finish this but we ask that people be patient. There will be a lot of paving activity this summer.”

Then with a smile, Suthers said: “I love the smell of asphalt in the morning.”

Suthers had pushed for the project since announcing his campaign for mayor nearly two years ago.

Heather Allen, who lives near Rockrimmon Boulevard., said she’s glad to see it happen.

“I thought it might get delayed or forgotten about,” she said. “But it’s happening faster than I expected. There were so many potholes. And the construction noise doesn’t bother me because I work during the day.”

However, project officials said some paving will be done at night when there is less traffic.

“We’re trying to take advantage of the paving time we have,” Corey Farkas, manager of the city’s Streets Division, said. “We have from now until maybe mid-October.”

Joann Ferguson, another Rockrimmon neighbor, said she’s pleased with the quality of the paving.

“They’ve done a beautiful job,” she said. “I wasn’t too sure about the mayor’s tax idea but it really worked out well.”

Martin Marietta, one of two local contractors on the project, hired around 50 employees and may hire 30 more.

“It’s a challenge to have enough workers and enough materials to do a job of this magnitude,” Ted Lowder, Martin Marietta’s general manager, said. “We’ve never had a job this big before.”