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Glenwood Springs’ South Midland corridor work timeline unaffected by recent weather

A flagger stops traffic on south Midland ahead of the lane closure due to on going construction.
Chelsea Self / Post Independent

Construction for the South Midland project is on schedule, though crews will continue to work on weekends to keep the course.

Bryana Starbuck, public information officer for Glenwood Springs, said the project has been very busy with several scopes of work happening simultaneously in the middle of the day.

“This all takes coordination and coordinated traffic control,” Starbuck said.



“Good news, construction crews have completed all the rockfall mitigation work. Crews are working on installing a new storm drain to improve utilities in the area.”

The 18-month reconstruction project began activities in December 2020 and will continue through summer 2022.



More than a quarter of Glenwood Springs residents use the South Midland corridor and currently the Midland roadway is prone to potholes, intersections have poor sight lines, the corridor experiences regular rockfall events, there are gaps in pedestrian infrastructure and traffic volumes are on the rise.

The project’s cost is $12.6 million.

Crews will continue working Saturdays, and are allowed to work Sundays as needed.

“This helps to make up weather days, and weekend work allows for crews to have longer work days with lane closures without interrupting our peak hour traffic which helps project productivity,” Starbuck said.

“Overall, Gould Construction has done a good job of sticking to the permitted lane closure hours. There is a very tight work area for everyone involved in the two projects, and safety is our first priority.”

A contractor working in the South Midland corridor to install a gas line for Black Hills Energy Work is not working within the scope of the city’s South Midland project.

Drivers are consistently tracking between five to 10 minutes, Starbuck said.

Gould Construction, the contractor for the project and has been taking export materials, such as rock that has been removed, to the Gould Construction material yard to be processed or recycled.

Starbuck said about 7,000 cubic yards of export materials will be removed and recycled from the project, with some stones to be used as landscaping materials.

The virtual message board at the project site is taking a break, which Starbuck said is part of the messaging strategy.

“We are taking a strategic pause from the messaging on the board to prevent folks from ignoring the message on the board,” Starbuck said. “This is from experience from other roadway projects; sometimes, repeat messages on the VMS boards get unnoticed after a long period of time..”

The city plans to refresh the message on the board in the coming weeks and will continue to use the virtual messaging boards throughout the project.

The next meeting with the project’s volunteer community group is May 12. If locals are interested in participating or joining, please email southmidlandproject@gmail.com.

Reporter Shannon Marvel can be reached at 605-350-8355 or smarvel@postindependent.com.


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