Significant repairs to failing infrastructure in Glenwood Meadows could be on deck next year.

The Glenwood Springs City Council voted unanimously Thursday to ask city staff to budget in 2023 roughly $1.1 million from the streets tax fund for repairs to roads, drainage and more along Wulfsohn Road and other streets in Glenwood Meadows.

The total cost of repairs is estimated at $3.6 million, with $2.5 million of the cost being covered by federal stimulus funds already secured by Glenwood Springs. Although Meadows infrastructure is less than 20 years old, it has degraded “exponentially,” Public Works Director Matt Langhorst told City Council.

“We all know they’re falling apart, they’re sinking. You go over a box culvert and all the sudden you drop 9 inches,” he said. “There are fixes that can be done fairly simply, but they’re all massive undertakings at the same time.”

According to a city staff report, repairs could include:

• Large scale removal and replacement project along most of Wulfsohn Road and all of East-West Meadows roads; This would include milling and overlaying sections of road, complete asphalt removal along a majority of the roads with a proper roadway section designed by a geotechnical engineer going back in place;

• Removal of numerous concrete island areas, some decorative internal islands and some sidewalk areas;

• Concreting of all bus pads;

• Installation of two new inlets and piping at low points with no collection system and correction of multiple storm water chases through the internal islands.

City Manager Debra Figueroa told City Council that retail and other sales generated at Glenwood Meadows provides the city with roughly a quarter of its tax base.

The motion was made by Mayor Jonathan Godes and seconded by council member Tony Hershey.

“We have a lot of residents up there, we have children — we have to fix these roads. … I seconded your motion (Godes), because I think this is an important priority,” Hershey said.

Council member Paula Stepp and Mayor Pro Tem Charlie Willman both asked whether planning to include the Meadows repairs would stretch the timeline for repairs to Blake Avenue. Those repairs were prioritized following approval of the Bell-Rippy multi-family residential development in 2020.

Langhorst said city staff were planning to meet within the week to discuss which portions of Blake Avenue to take to the design phase next year.

“The plan for next year is to take a decent pot of money, and survey and redesign portions of Blake Avenue” before putting them out to bid for construction for 2024, he said.

Editor Peter Baumann can be reached at 970-384-9114 or at pbaumann@postindependent.com.