Expanded street repaving project starts in Pueblo

PUEBLO, Colo. (KRDO) -- Financed by $10 million in additional funding approved by voters last fall, crews have kicked-off spring with an effort to repave more than the usual number of streets in the Steel City.

The city is using the money from a 2021 budget surplus that the Taxpayer Bill of Rights requires be refunded to voters unless they allow the city to keep it for specific purposes.

Workers started by applying fresh asphalt to eastbound lanes of City Center Drive at Santa Fe Avenue -- the main entrance into downtown from Interstate 25.

Milling, or removing old pavement, on nearby Grand Avenue has already begun, as well.

Both projects started last week and will continue this week, along with targeting the east end of 15th Street.

Charles Roy, the city's engineering manager, explained that the worst streets aren't necessarily being repaved first.

"We hired a contractor in January to spend six weeks analyzing every street to determine what condition it's in," he said. "That data won't be available until lmid-summer. Once we get it, we hope to address streets that need minor repaving before they get worse and require major repaving."

Roy said that the streets chosen first are those on which work had already begun previously, or had specific issues that needed to be addressed quickly.

"We're excited about this," he said. "It's been 10 or 15 years since we've had this much to devote to street improvements. Normally, we get around $2.5 million."

The work will mean temporary detours and lane closures in the paving areas, but drivers don't seem to mind.

"On a scale of 1 to 10, they're at least a 5 or 6," said Pueblo resident Cody Pierce. "I'd like to at least get that on all streets to an 8 or 10."

Roy said that Abriendo Avenue, near downtown, and Covina Court on the city's south end, are in particularly rough shape and will be repaved this year.

"But I'd also like to see bike lanes on all the streets for people who jog, ride their bikes, people who walk and walk their pets," said neighbor Ramona Perez.

Roy said that street paving in Pueblo's desert climate presents special challenges.

"People may not realize it, but we have an even worse freeze-thaw cycles than many other cities," he said. "That's because it still gets cold, but we also have bigger temperature swings. We're also on both sides of the Arkansas River, and each side has different soil conditions."