El Paso County commissioners approve, give good reviews to this year’s road maintenance plan

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. (KRDO) -- The county's five-member Board of Commissioners unanimously approved Tuesday the plan to pave and repair roads for the upcoming year.

Kevin Mastin, the county's executive director of public works, said that the county will spend $20 million this year from a combination of the county's budget allocation and funding from the Pikes Peak Rural Transportation Authority (PPRTA).

Some roads will be repaved while others will receive other treatments to extend the time until repaving is necessary.

Because roughly half of the county's roads are unpaved, the plan also will improve gravel roads to make them smoother and less dusty; Mastin said that's done by using a reclaiming machine to mix gravel and magnesium chloride to rebuild selected roads, then shape and compact those roads.

Mastin said that the first work on gravel roads will be in the Midway area, south of Fountain -- a community where residents have regularly complained about poor road quality.

“It’s kind of unsafe, even on slight bends," said driver Jake Keller. "They get so rough that you start to skid off to the side. Anything you can improve to make driving safer and not going into ditches, I think is a great idea.”

The county plans to repave nearly 45 miles of roads in 28 locations, most of which are in the northern half.

To see the list of roads included in this year's plan, visit: https://www.agendasuite.org/iip/elpaso/file/getfile/34648.

KRDO broke the story in 2018 detailing how a county road report found two-thirds of its roads to be in bad or poor condition; last year was a key year for road maintenance as public works received an additional $31.5 million for road maintenance from the county, the PPRTA and federal pandemic funds.

With the additional money, the county repaved 47 roads; Mastin said that he's working with county engineer Joshua Palmer on a new plan to bring all roads up to acceptable standards within 20 years.

Meanwhile, public works continues to struggle with staff shortages; Mastin said that the department was short 37 employees for most of last year, despite efforts to improve hiring by increasing pay and benefits, waiving the high school diploma requirement and training new workers to earn their commercial driver's license instead of paying for CDL classes in advance.

"What's going to make the difference is that county commissioners approved improving the pay and benefits package for new employees to make us more competitive," he explained. "It took a while for us to get that done."

Mastin said that the imminent hiring of nine candidates will reduce the shortage to 28, and encourages anyone interested in a job with the department to apply as soon as possible.

One of the repaving projects will happen on Ruby Drive -- a mile-long road in the Park Vista neighborhood just outside of the east Colorado Springs city limits, and often used by drivers as a shortcut between Austin Bluffs Parkway and Academy Boulevard.

"I wasn't sure it needed repaving," said neighbor Stanley Estredge. "But I guess it makes sense if they want to fix it before it falls apart. It's crumbling in some places. The big hill is tough in the wintertime — going down and coming up. I don’t know how they would fix that. Maybe put in some speed bumps to slow traffic down."

Another neighbor, Jacob Seiltz, said that he hopes the repaving will include adding curbs, gutters and sidewalks because many residents walk their pets.

“With the cars driving by, it would be nice to be farther away from the road, for the safety of me and my dog," he said.

Commissioner Carrie Geitner said that she's satisfied with the progress being made to address the backlog of road improvements.

"Instead of citizens complaining about poor roads, I hear them complain about too much traffic when they’re trying to get to work or whatever, because of the roadwork that is happening," she said. "So, of course, we have to balance that and make sure that people are still able to get around. But what that tells me is they’re seeing the work, and it’s on the roads that matter to them.”