136th Year... and still on the job!	Saturday May 28, 2005

Initial chem demil work still slated

Initial work to prepare a site for the destruction of chemical weapons is still scheduled to get under way this summer.

Kevin Blose of the Assembled Chemical Weapons Alternative program, told the local Community Advisory Commission this week that much of the work stopped earlier this year when funds were frozen would soon begin.

Projects include surveying, soils and concrete testing, fencing and construction of a road linking the mustard agent storage area to a new entry point to the depot on the DOT road east of the airport industrial park.

Greg Severance, Pueblo County public works director, said that the Defense Access Road project, which includes upgrading industrial park roads, extending William White Boulevard also is moving forward. The Defense Department is paying for $18.6 million of the project while the county is contributing $1.7 million and the Colorado Department of Transportation $500,000.

The progress of the work depends on two factors, approval of an environmental assessment that will be completed soon and submitted to the Federal Highway Administration, and the transfer of the money from the Defense Department to the highway agency.

Severance said he expects the funds to be available by October and hopes to get started on the William White extension by early November. That project has long been needed to provide a second access point to the airport industrial park.