138th Year... and still on the job!	Wednesday October 25, 2006

Work continues on depot access road

New Pueblo Chemical Depot entrance handy but not yet paved.

By JOHN NORTON
THE PUEBLO CHIEFTAIN

Even though it's not fully paved, a new entrance to the Pueblo Chemical Depot came in handy earlier this month when an errant semitrailer made a wrong turn off Colorado 96 and blocked the main entrance. It will be several months before the new access road will be in regular use. A spokesman for Bechtel, the principal contractor for the depot cleanup, said Tuesday that work on a group of canvas-covered inspection stations should be done by the end of this year and paving work still needed for the road will be finished by spring, when the road will be opened. Dubbed the "Northwest Passage," the 7-mile road runs from DOT Road, which connects the airport industrial park to the Transportation Technology Center, along the northern boundary of the depot to the site of a chemical weapons destruction complex that will begin construction next year. The new access was deemed the least expensive and most efficient way to get construction vehicles, as well as commuting workers, to the site when the destruction program gets under way. Currently, access to the depot is on an aging road connected to a bridge that spans Colorado 96 and U.S. 50 just west of where the two highways split.

CHIEFTAIN PHOTO/JOHN JAQUES Shelley Brown bikes on the new Pueblo Chemical Depot access road. The road will officially be opened next spring. Work is continuing on  a control point where vehicles will be inspected before entering the northern area of the Pueblo Chemical Depot where a chemical weapons destruction plant will be buil

To handle the anticipated traffic for the chemical demilitarization program, it would have been necessary to put in a new interchange. Instead, the Defense Department opted for a new access point and provided $18.6 million through the Federal Highway Administration to improve DOT road, United Avenue and William White Boulevard in the industrial park and extend William White to Colorado 47, providing a long-needed second entrance to the industrial park. The Northwest Passage has brought $6.75 million to RBK Construction of Rye for the 7-mile stretch, plus $2.5 million to install fencing along the road and around the igloos where chemical weapons are stored and the site of the plant. Gash Electric won the $6 million contract for the control station where vehicles will be checked before entering the restricted area. Other traffic into the depot includes depot employees and contractors, as well as tenants of the reuse authority that leases space in igloos outside the restricted area and warehouses. Drivers still must pass a security station where their vehicles are subject to search. When the Pueblo facility was marked for closure as a military base, a transitional arrangement was set up with Pueblo County to begin shifting its use from military to civilian storage. The Pueblo Depot Activity Reuse Authority (it still uses the former name of the base) has a master lease for more than 3.2 million square feet in earth-covered, climate-controlled igloos and some warehouses. Of that, 671,249 square feet are leased, an all-time high achieved this year. Even though it closed its Delta rocket plant here, Boeing still stores some items at the depot and with 218,890 square feet is the biggest tenant, mostly using igloos. Eldorado Stone, which has a plant in the industrial park where it makes artificial stone veneers from concrete, is the second biggest tenant. Having that storage capacity in a tightly-secured facility is an extra advantage for companies in the industrial park. Other local tenants include Trane, Atlas Pacific, Flexible Foam, Adam Aircraft and Timberline Fasteners. Other large tenants like Wal-Mart come in on a seasonal basis. In addition to large commercial tenants, some military items are still stored in rented space and a number of local individuals have used igloos for private storage. The Pueblo County Historical Society rents two igloos for its artifacts. Chemical depot storage tenants Tenants Square feet The Boeing Company 218,890 Eldorado Stone 135,620 The Trane Company 90,300 96th Regional Support Command 45,150 Atlas Pacific 28,872 Flexible Foam, Inc. 23,600 Minimart/Loaf ’ÄôN Jug 21,420 Minco Manufacturing 12,030 Adam Aircraft Industries 9,624 CDOT 9,624 South Plains Lamesa RR* 7,294 Timberline Fasteners 5,117 Pueblo County Historical Society 4,812 Hospital Cooperative Laundry 4,185 Wojdyla, Jozef 4,185 Adaptive Imaging Solutions 2,406 Bollinger, Ralph 2,406 Brown, Kerry 2,406 Colorado Moving & Storage 2,406 District Attorney's Office 2,406 Friends of Colorado History 2,406 Gash Electric 2,406 Jensen, Larry 2,406 Keeth, Walter 2,406 Littleton Historical Museum 2,406 Mangus, Harold 2,406 Miller, Francis 2,406 Pueblo Community College 2,406 Pueblo County 2,406 Redinger, Phil 2,406 Santa, Steven 2,406 Sinks, Carrell 2,406 TTCI 2,406 Valero LP 2,406 Volk, Jeff 2,406 Wojdyla, Jack 2,406 Total 671,249 *Also leasing 31 miles of rail for storage