At its April 2 meeting, the Archuleta County Board of County Commissioners (BoCC) approved two proposed road projects and awarded the contract for reconstruction of North Pagosa Boulevard from Bastille Drive to U.S. 160 and a portion of Navajo Trail Drive adjoining North Pagosa Boulevard.
At a work session earlier in the day, the BoCC heard an update on road projects from Public Works Director Mike Torres.
Torres opened his update by explaining that road striping was delayed last year and the department plans to start early on it this year.
He added that, due to the increased cost of striping, the department would have to transfer $12,000 to the striping budget line to cover the increased costs.
Torres stated that, following a previous presentation to the BoCC covering county paving work plans for the year, he spoke with contractor Dustrol Inc., who performs milling and recycling of the “first few inches” of asphalt on a road and re-lays it, creating an “essentially new road” with a smooth surface.
“The cost savings on that is huge,” he said, adding that the department is looking at having this recycling performed on 8.2 miles of county roads this year.
Torres indicated that Dustrol is the only vendor who performs such work in this area.
He stated that the proposed roads to receive this treatment include 2.8 miles of North Pagosa Boulevard from Piedra Road to the “end of the split lane on the south side of the split lane,” 1.3 additional miles of North Pagosa Boulevard from Aspenglow Boulevard to Edgewater Drive, 0.7 miles of Navajo Trail Drive from the end of the proposed North Pagosa Boulevard paving project to Vista Boulevard, 1.7 miles on Hatcher Circle and 1.7 miles on South Pagosa Boulevard from Cameron Place to Meadows Drive.
Torres added that this project would be on the agenda for approval at the BoCC meeting that day and that he wanted to explain how the project was developed.
He indicated that these roads are in need of maintenance and are showing surface cracks and potholes, and that this treatment would help extend the life of these roads, particularly with the addition of chip seal over the recycled roads.
Torres then covered the bids for the North Pagosa Boulevard intersection reconstruction project, indicating that the county received four bids, with PAP LLC coming in at the lowest bid.
However, Torres stated that the county has had “some issues with them in the past” and that he recommended instead selecting the second lowest bidder, Four Corners Materials, which has a history of successfully completing projects for the county.
He stated that the PAP bid was at $304,915.50 and the Four Corners bid was priced at $487,325.
Torres commented that the costs were “a little bit” higher than last year’s bids on this project but that paving a section of Navajo Trail Drive likely contributed to this cost increase.
He added that Sunland Asphalt also entered a bid at $564,457.65 and Elam Construction entered a bid of $655,158.
Commissioner Ronnie Maez asked if the county is making progress on obtaining bids for paving work on County Road (CR) 119, also known as Light Plant Road.
Torres stated that the pre-bid meeting will occur “in the next couple weeks” and that the bids would likely be presented by the end of May.
Commissioner Warren Brown asked, on the topic of striping, if the companies involved completed their work from last year and if they were still bound by last year’s contract.
Torres stated that the work from last year was finished last year and that the county is moving forward with new contracts this year.
He added that the contractor wanted to begin the striping earlier this year.
Commissioner Veronica Medina asked if the chip seal that Torres proposed should be applied to the roads recycled by Dustrol would be done this year or later.
Torres stated that it would be done later in the year and that the chip seal would add an “additional layer of protection” on the roads.
Medina asked if this is a better process than laying new asphalt, adding that she was unsure what the cost difference between this process and new asphalt would be.
Torres stated that the cost of Dustrol milling and recycling asphalt on 8.2 miles of roads is $740,067.28 and that he estimated the cost of chip seal on these roads would be similar.
He added that this is likely 10 percent of the cost of laying new asphalt on this length of road.
County Manager Derek Woodman explained that last year the county had a project on Piedra Road which laid 0.75 miles of new asphalt for $1.5 million.
At the BoCC meeting later that day, the board approved the project with Dustrol at a cost of $740,067.28 and the road striping project to be completed by Branson Road Works at a cost of $96,500.
The board also selected Four Corners Materials as the contractor for the North Pagosa Boulevard reconstruction project at a cost of $487,325.
josh@pagosasun.com
