Staff Engineer Stephanie Brothers, describes the corner at the A&W Restaurant as business owner Randy Hamann looks on.

Tuesday evening’s Mountain Avenue Phase III public information meeting was sparsely  attended. Only four local business owners showed up to listen and ask questions about the last phase of the Mountain Avenue project.

Staff Engineer Stephanie Brothers described the work to be done from Fifth Street westward. There will be new curb and gutter to Taft Avenue. A new storm drain line will start with 18” pipe at Ninth Street and increase to 24” pipe where it joins the new line at Fifth Street. This line is much shallower that the line that was replaced in phase I. Brothers estimated the depth to be three feet at Ninth Street, increasing to seven or eight feet at Fifth Street. Replacement of the water line will only go to Eighth Street, as the line west of that point is PVC.

Additionally, there are no wastewater lines down this stretch of Mountain Avenue, the service coming from the north down the numbered streets instead. The final part of the project will be paving that will include new overlay as far west as Meadowlark Drive.

This project is somewhat less complex than Phase I and will cost less. Brothers said the town has $1.4 million for the project, which includes $500,000 Colorado Department of Transportation (CDOT) funds and $300,000 from a Department of Local Affairs (DOLA) grant. The DOLA grant must be used before October or it will be lost.

She said, however, the engineering firm that drew up the plans estimated the cost at $1.6 million. If the bids come in at that level, some cuts will have to be made.

Scott Banzhaf asked Brothers about the timetable for construction. Brothers said the town was ready to advertise the bid, but CDOT advised that the fund allocation must be approved by the CDOT Transportation Commission at its next monthly meeting. The commission’s next meeting is March 18. After getting the CDOT approval, the bid must be advertised for three weeks. In the best-case scenario, Brothers hopes to present the choices to the Town Board on April 20 with construction to begin in May. The long estimate for time to complete is four months. Brothers optimistically said it should only take three months. She also said that CDOT only allows them to close the road from 8:30 a.m. to 4 p.m., twice weekly.

Affected business owners, Dorothy King and Randy Hamann had some questions. Hamann was concerned that the drawings had no storm drains in the 900 block where his business, the A&W Restaurant, is located, even though there is a presently a flush drain at the south west corner of the parking lot. He said that the area around the restaurant becomes a lagoon and needs drainage. Brothers said that she would look into that when the final elevations are measured. Hamann and Banzhaf both urged Brothers to makes sure that the construction company was aware of the concerns of the business in the work area and of the problems that came up in Phase I. Hamann pointed out that this was happening during his peak season and would affect his business.

King’s main concern was about water outages. Brothers assured her that any such outages would be minimal since the water lines do not run along Mountain Avenue. After more discussion on dust control, traffic control and the effect on local business the meeting broke up.

Larry Leach of Main Street Car Care and Randy Hamann, A&W Restaurant look at the construction plans for the Mountain Avenue Project Phase III.