Last week was the kickoff for the City of Glenwood Springs’ Blake Avenue construction project. Construction was anticipated to start yesterday. The first steps are to extend storm drains. At a recent community meeting residents heard from city staff. Ryan Gordon serves as the Glenwood Springs City Engineer, and in the meeting he described what work residents can expect:
"So we are adding storm drain from 24th all the way down Blake, including up 26th and then up to 27th street. We're putting in new wastewater services in a new line up 24th on Blake and will be replacing several of the. Wastewater, sewer laterals when those activities occur, we will be, giving you guys, at least 24 hour notice to please, refrain from flushing your toilets during that time. We will be replacing the water line that is in 26th Street from Blake up to basically Palmer, we will be completely and totally rebuilding the entire roadway. Including all new asphalt surface, plus the subgrade. Blake Avenue, and this stretch, is in the top echelon of the worst streets in Glenwood, so a much needed full rebuild.
Other really cool aspects of this project we are constructing a 10 foot wide concrete shared use path from 24th all the way to 27th Street from 26th 27th that pathway narrows down to eight feet, but it's gonna be a great amenity that will carry pedestrians and bicyclists from the BRT station essentially back down into the Glenwood proper. We are adding new lighting components. We are planning on pedestrian bollards that will be located along the shared use path to provide lighting for those pedestrians and bicyclists. And really our goal is to not have lighting that intrudes in anybody's houses or yards. So it's gonna be downward facing and not very intrusive. Obviously not steady work in front of everybody's homes, but we're bouncing around the entire corridor.
There's quite a bit of construction activities, which again will take the duration of the project. The roadway will be open for local traffic, so any of you guys that need access to your homes, you will always have access to your homes. There will be some work to tying the new road to your driveway and we'll coordinate those with with everybody, but just so everybody knows that.
You will have access to your homes at all times.
One impact that's going to be a little bit of a challenge is that during construction, the Postal Service will not be to houses on Blake Avenue during construction. So when that happens, you as homeowners will need to come down to the Post Office to pick up your mail.
We'll be coordinating directly with the Postal Service when those dates occur and then when you guys will need to make that trip to the Postal Service. Apologize for the inconvenience, but for the safety of the postal delivery personnel, that is their policy."
Construction for the Blake Avenue project is likely to continue through November.
More information on the project as well as the full kickoff video recording is available at COGS.US/753/Blake-Avenue.
