Subcontractor holds up Lower Valley Trail project
Glenwood Springs correspondent
Aspen, CO Colorado
GLENWOOD SPRINGS – An apparent bit of slacking by a Denver-based subcontractor has held up completion of part of the Lower Valley Trail, which ultimately is meant to follow I-70 from West Glenwood Springs to the Mesa County Line.
But the short stretch of trail west of town, from the South Canyon Bridge eastward toward Glenwood for about 1,850 feet, will be finished by next spring, Garfield County officials said this week.
Work began on the trail in September and was expected to be done by now, but county contracts administrator Jeff Hackett reported this week that a subcontractor, which a county official referred to as Guild, did not finish work on the fencing portion of the $689,591 project.
Hackett reported that the company failed to show up for its scheduled work on several different occasions, and that officials from the Colorado Department of Transportation “sent a nastygram” to Guild to get them back at work.
The subcontractor’s tardiness, in turn, meant the main contractor, Heyl Construction, was unable to finish paving the trail section before the contract’s deadline.
As a result, Heyl was facing a $1,400 per day fine for every day the project remains unfinished.
But that fine was put on hold by the Board of County Commissioners after a presentation by Hackett at the board’s meeting on Nov. 15, with the understanding that the project’s completion date now is “around 9 May, 2011,” as stated in a memo from Hackett to the board.
Contacted by phone this week, Hackett said of the Guild subcontract work on the fencing along the trail, “Their piece is almost complete,” and should be finished soon.
The paving, however, will have to wait until the spring, and Hackett estimated “a finish schedule of three weeks approximately starting on April 15, 2011 to allow time for asphalt plants to re-open.”
Aspen City Council puts breaks on Old Powerhouse Preservation Project
With many lingering questions still surrounding the fate of Aspen’s historic Old Powerhouse, City Council decided during Monday’s work session to hold off on providing staff direction on moving the preservation project forward until more information can be presented.
