Pueblo has two major highway projects underway; a third starts this weekend
PUEBLO, Colo. (KRDO) -- Along with numerous projects on city streets this summer, the Steel City also has or will have three major projects on highways through town.
The newest project starts Sunday, on three miles of Highway 47 east of the US 50 interchange, where asphalt pavement turns into concrete pavement.
The Colorado Department of Transportation (CDOT) is investing nearly $2 million in a micro-surfacing treatment on a highway segment that was last paved in 2015.
Patrick Vigil, a CDOT engineer, said that the process is similar to one called chip-sealing; a crew will apply a mixture of liquid asphalt and finely-crushed stone, to level out road defects and extend the life of the pavement.
"It's my understanding that the micro-surfacing will last five years," he explained. "After that, we'll have funding in the budget for repaving. The micro-surfacing work will be done at night."
Vigil has a personal connection to the project because he helped design the previous repaving of Highway 47 as an intern at nearby Colorado State University-Pueblo.
"It served about ten years for that pavement structure," he said. "It's nice to be able to be a part of that same highway as I did when I first started here at CDOT."
The contractor for the project is Intermountain Slurry Seal, Inc., a firm that provides road treatments in 21 states across the west and midwest.
Working hours will be Sunday through Thursday, from 7 p.m. until 6 a.m.; the project is scheduled for completion by the end of July.
In a second project, crews are replacing damaged concrete panels on Interstate 25 at the US 50 interchange; Vigil said that some panels have sunk lower than the surrounding panels because of issues with the base underneath.
"We got the northbound ones taken care of," he said. "Those are all poured. We're waiting for those to cure out, and we're planning on Sunday evening to remove the northbound single lane closure and move to southbound. So, starting Sunday night, we'll be working on the southbound, problematic areas there. It's just kind of like occasional panels, not a whole stretch."
To prevent the replacement panels from sinking again, Vigil said that crews will reinforce the base underneath; the new northbound panels appear to be in the right lane.
He added that crews worked around the clock for two weeks to replace the northbound panels, and expects a similar schedule for the southbound panels.
Meanwhile, a nearly $16 million repaving of I-25, ten miles from the US 50 interchange to just south of Pueblo Boulevard; that project has continued since April and should end this fall.
Most of the construction will happen at night; Vigil said that while the work will slow down traffic and increase suggestion, citizens should know that CDOT is being proactive in addressing the area's many road needs as soon as possible.
