138th Year... and still on the job!	Wednesday June 14, 2006

By MARGIE WOOD
THE PUEBLO CHIEFTAIN

Pueblo County commissioners said Tuesday they will seek congressional help to resolve a bottleneck in construction of an extension of William White Boulevard.

They had hoped to start the project this summer,· with an $18.7 million boost from federal funding because the road also will be part of the access to Pueblo Chemical Depot.

But a draft environmental assessment on the project has been bouncing around various offices in the Colorado Department of Transportation, according to Greg Severance, the county's director of public works. When both the Region 2 and environmental branch offices in CDOT are satisfied, it will go to the Federal Highway Administration.

"Bottom line: It's January 11 before we can go to bid," Severance said. He's frustrated because the federal funding of $18.7 million has been sitting idle since it was granted this past January.

Commissioner Matt Peulen grumbled, "The money is sitting in the bank. What are we going to do - wait until the project is done before the road is built?"

"There are a lot of questions I have about this," Severance said. "The cost of this environmental assessment is $900,000 and counting, and that money could be used on the project. There's the inflation of building costs - with this delay it could become more than a $24 million project. We're also concerned that the delay in the road work could be used as an excuse to delay hundreds of millions in funding for the (weapons destruction) project itself."

Commissioner Loretta Kennedy said, "It's amazing to me that they completed the environmental assessment for Gate 19 at Fort Carson in four months, but this one has been going on since July 2005."

Commissioners approved the standard contract with CDOT for the project, but asked Severance to draft a letter to Colorado's congressional delegation in an effort to move the project more quickly.