Harsh winter requires major Main Street construction and traffic delays
Austin Colbert/The Aspen Times
On Tuesday, Aspen City Council approved a $724,000 project to repave Main Street. This comes after a prolonged winter of snow and potholes.
“The potholes become so significant on Main Street we had to reroute traffic to ensure the safety of the traveling public,” said Aspen City Engineer Trish Aragon.
CDOT will also be allotting $213,000 for the project.
“This is a substantial amount of money for a project like this, especially since CDOT is coming to the table with limited resources themselves. They recognize how important this project is and they are contributing to it,” she said.
She admits this is just a temporary fix for the scenario, and residents should be prepared for additional repairs in the future.
“I want to emphasize this is not an ultimate fix — more like a band-aid to fix the most damaged areas. The community needs to be prepared for this to happen on a regular basis,” she said.
City Council approved the funding for the Sept. 11-22 pavement restoration on State Highway 82/Main Street. This will add an additional scope of work to the 2023 Asphalt Overlay Project with Frontier Paving Inc., funds for necessary inspections and project oversight, as well as staff spending authority for the project contingency.
“We really want to encourage alternative methods of accessing Aspen during this time period,” said Aragon. “There will be significant impacts to the traveling public, and we recommend using the bus, taking a bike to work, working from home, or staggering work times.”
