Repaving one road saves money to resurface five others in Fountain, all in the same week

FOUNTAIN, Colo. (KRDO) -- Crews recently finished a busy but successful week by resurfacing five streets that otherwise wouldn't have happened this year if not for the repaving of Southmoor Drive.

"What happens a lot with these types of projects is you have a weather delay or a maintenance issue because of rain," said Bob McDonald, the town's transportation director. "We had some thunderstorms, so it pushed other projects, of course, forward. And I had to push this project forward about a week."

A half-mile segment of Southmoor was recently repaved after being closed for six years because of an erosion risk from Fountain Creek.

By using recycled asphalt in the repaving, town officials saved $320,000 that they used to pay for the five resurfacing projects -- two asphalt repaving jobs and three chip-seal jobs.

In the chip-seal process, crews apply a tar-like substance to the pavement and spread small rock chips over it; the materials harden into a new surface that delays the need for a more expensive asphalt repaving.

The asphalt repaving was on several blocks of Fountain Mesa Road, south of the Mesa Ridge Parkway intersection, and on a block of Sneffels Street between Fountain Mesa and Cross Creek Avenue.

Crews performed chip sealing at the south end of Fountain Mesa; along Jimmy Camp Road, near Fountain-Fort Carson High School; and on the southeast end of Marksheffel Road.

Fountain's City Council had the option to repave all of Southmoor, but decided the savings would be better spent on other projects, given that the town's annual paving budget is $650,000.

The cost of repaving Southmoor alone was $450,000.

Crews finished repaving Southmoor earlier this month, and also installed a guardrail on the creek side of the street.

"It was a little bit more of an inconvenience for drivers while doing all of those projects," McDonald said. "There were some traffic delays and traffic issues that we hopefully minimized."

But Fountain resident Aaron McKain isn't sure about the effectiveness of chip-sealing.

"I think the street is worse now than it was before," he observed, about the chip-sealing on Fountain Mesa. "It's kinda dangerous. It's slick. These (rock) pieces on here aren't attached to the road, and if you hit that turn too fast -- uh oh!"

However, crews used leaf blowers and street sweepers to remove loose rocks on Jimmy Camp, and likely used the same process at the other chip-seal locations.