Fingers Crossed, Lake Road Paving Scheduled to Begin Late Next Week

Chip and seal paving of a four-mile section of County Road 30 from its intersection with State Highway 149 and extending up to and around the west side of Lake San Cristobal to the lake’s inlet is set to begin late next week.
Persistent moist conditions caused by periodic rain downpours thus far through August has resulted in a necessary delay in road base preparations by Hinsdale County Road & Bridge, which in turns set back start of actual paving by the county’s paving contractor, A-1 Chip & Seal based out of Denver.
Two layers of chip & seal asphalt were initially scheduled for installation early this month but, as a result of the damp conditions, that work has now been pushed back to a hoped-for start Thursday and Friday next week, August 29 and 30.
According to Hinsdale Commissioner Robert Hurd who is overseeing the project — and, of course, weather conditions allowing — A-1 Chip & Seal will install the “bottom lift” — basically 1”-thick base layer consisting of 3/4” gravel chips mixed with thick oil emulsion next week, followed by mandatory and presumably dry curing over the weekend.
Sweeping the surface of the first layer is tentatively scheduled Tuesday, September 3, and then the final layer put into place on Thursday and Friday, September 5 and 6. The final top layer is 3/4” -thick with 1/2”-diameter chips, for a total depth both layers of 1-3/4”.
Added to this as figurative frosting on top of the layered asphalt is a 1/4”-thick fog coating of heavy gauge oil which serves as a sealant on the road surface.
As a final step in the process, stripe painting and signage will be installed.
Work by A-1 Chip & Seal will require traffic delays on the well-traveled upper Lake Fork Road as flaggers restrict traffic flow to a single lane.
While intermittent rains are a vexation to road base work by the county requiring dry conditions, and this in turn delays to the asphalt overlay by A-1, the road work timing works to the favor of this weekend’s Alpine 50 bike race (see separate article) which sets forth early Saturday morning.
Athletic bicyclists enrolled in the Saturday race will follow a route up valley via CR30 from Highway 149 to the lake outlet, then following County Road 33 on the east side of the lake. Bike racers then reconverge on CR 30 at the lake inlet and continue the route up valley up and over Cinnamon and Engineer Passes and back to Lake City.
Bike enthusiasts on Saturday are highly focused athletes and may or may not notice hopefully drying road base work which has been completed in advance of next week’s start of paving.
According to Hinsdale Road & Bridge Supervisor Don Menzies, road base preparations along the four-mile route began last month creating a uniform 30’ road width, gently crowned at the center to shed snowmelt and rain to either side of the roadway.
By design, the peak of the center crown is 5” higher than the slopes sides of the highway.
Chip & seal paving will consist of two 11’-wide motorized lanes, on either side of which is a 4’-wide paved lane designed of bicycle recreational use. Space constraints on sharp corners along portions of the lake road may necessarily restrict the bike lanes to just 3’-width.
The recreation aspect of the chip & seal project with bicycle lanes worked in the county’s favor in its successful grant application for $900,000 in Multi Model Transportation & Mitigation Options Fund (MMOF) money administered by Colorado Dept. of Transportation. Since the funding was approved, installation costs have steadily increased and the county has budgeted and set aside funds to pay for preparation and paving costs, and related expenses, above and beyond the $900,000 which is being received from the state.
The exact amount of county funding toward the chip and seal project is as yet undetermined, according to Hinsdale County Administrator Sandy Hines, but may be in the range of $242,000.
Hines references road construction cost increases which are uniform throughout Colorado, noting CDOT highway projects “are coming in over budget 1throughout the state.”
Hinsdale Commissioners’ hopes for a within budget lake road paving project were buoyed early on with the start of design work for the roadway which was bid by Montrose-based Buckhorn Engineering — the same firm which designed and oversaw construction of the impounding outlet gates at Lake San Cristobal — at $118,310.
Hinsdale County was prepared to pay for the design work exclusive of the CDOT grant and was relieved when the actual billing for design work came in at just $58,000 with a savings of $65,730 to be applied elsewhere in the road paving budget.
Taking into account the $900,000 in MMOF grant funding to be reimbursed by the state highway department, upcoming CR30 paving expenses are envisioned to total up to $1,208,268, although — optimistically — the hope is that actual costs may be somewhat less.
Principal upcoming expense is A-1 Chip & Seal’s accepted bid of up to $1,176,000 for paving. To this amount is added an additional $31,738 bid by Buckhorn Engineering for construction management and materials testing which is mandated by the state.
Commissioner Hurd continues to review costs of the project and is in hopes of further cost reductions in terms of a possible reduction in A-1’s bid reflecting mobilization and demobilization costs.
“The hope,” says County Administrator Hines, “is that the county will finish the project under budget.”