136th Year... and
still on the
job!
Friday September 23,
2005
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136th Year... and
still on the
job!
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Friday September 23,
2005
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The Army's controller has signed off on a plan to help fund a new access to Pueblo's airport industrial park and the money should be released to the Federal Highway Administration in the next 30 days.
The work could begin in December or January.
Greg Severance, Pueblo County's public works director said that, at the same time, progress is being made on the environmental assessment study of the entire Defense Access Road project and that process should be complete by December.
The Defense Access Road project is a cooperative effort by Pueblo County and the federal government to improve access to the Pueblo Chemical Depot where a $1.6 billion demilitarization program is supposed to get under way in the next few years.
With hundreds of construction workers and Bechtel employees commuting to the project site, it was decided to set up a separate entry point from the existing depot entrance off Colorado 96 and the U.S. 50 Bypass.
Workers at the Transportation Technology Center have already noticed some activity along the state Department of Transportation road that stretches from the airport industrial park to the rail research center. The DOT road brushes past the northwest corner of the Army base.
It's at that point that the new access point will be built. Workers for RBK Construction of Rye are getting ready to install a fence there, part of a $2.5 million contract the local company won to put in 46,000 feet of fencing.
It's expected that Bechtel, the prime contractor on the chemical demilitarization program, will award a contract next week for a road from the new gate to the chem demil project site.
Outside the depot property, the Defense Access Road project involves resurfacing the 7.7 miles from the new depot access to the boundary of the airport industrial park where the DOT Road becomes United Avenue. The county has already spent $6 million improving the DOT Road and Severance said he hopes that the resurfacing will be one of the last things done, after the heavy equipment for the other road project inside the depot have come and gone.
Also included in the plan is widening United, which is the main artery through the eastern section of the industrial park and William White Boulevard, which runs through the western portion.
William White also will be extended to Colorado 47, which also will be widened north of the new intersection.
That will give both the chem demil workers and commuters to jobs at the industrial park another way to get to work. Currently, Paul Harvey Boulevard is the only way in and out of the park, and to the TTC. Flooding at the U.S. 50 Bypass has stranded people in the park at times.
The Defense Department is paying $18.6 million of the project cost while the county is contributing $1.7 million and the Colorado Department of Transportation $500,000.
The spending authorization for the federal portion goes to Congress, which has 30 days to hear any comments on it. If there are no changes, the money is then transferred to the Federal Highway Administration and then to the Colorado Department of Transportation, which will set up an intergovernmental agreement with the county to continue with the project.
Severance said that he expects work will begin in December or January.