Recreation Trail project in final phase; wastewater collection project moves indoors
Traffic impacts in the Dowd Junction area will continue over the next few weeks as the roadway portion of the joint ERWSD wastewater collection and ECO Trails project wraps up. Crews have been placing concrete and rotomilling (grinding) the existing asphalt surface in preparation for roadway paving and restoration. The week of October 9, crews are scheduled to pave and stripe U.S. Highway 6 & 24 in accordance with CDOT requirements. Following roadway paving and striping, paving crews will continue placing asphalt on the new recreation path connection towards Minturn.
Traffic impacts in the next week (weather dependent) will be mostly one-lane traffic with flaggers during paving and striping operations. Following completion of paving and striping, intermittent traffic impacts are likely for work activities such as concrete placements for the new barrier wall and installation of pedestrian railing and drainage infrastructure associated with the new recreation path. Buried utility work has been complete since August, except for two customer connections associated with the U.S. Forest Service buildings; utility-related traffic impacts are not anticipated.
Motorists are urged to drive slowly and carefully and yield to bicycles through the area. Bicyclists must follow all signage and traffic controls in the area and stay out of the construction area for their safety.
This work is part of a large, multi-year $17 million project to improve aging and undersized infrastructure in the wastewater collection system in Dowd Junction.
Phase I began in Aug. 2020 near the intersection of U.S. Highway 24 and County Road in Minturn and included a new pedestrian bridge that extended the Eagle Valley Trail system. Construction of Phase II began in spring 2021 to replace the sewer main that crosses the Eagle River upstream of the Gore Valley Trail bridge and construct a new utility bridge to support it across the river. The current Phase III work includes the construction of a new lift station across from the U.S. Forest Service building to replace the nearby existing one, a new gravity sewer main from the County Road bridge in Minturn to the new lift station, and two force (pressurized) sewer mains between the lift station and the Gore Valley Trail Bridge in Dowd Junction. As with Phase I, the end of Phase III includes a partnership with Eagle County’s ECO Trails, this time to connect the bike trail from Minturn to the Gore Valley Trail intersection.
Project completion and full restoration of the roadway is expected in early November. Interior pump station work is scheduled in to winter but with no public impact. This project is funded by customer wastewater rates and property assessments, with the trail portion of the work funded by Eagle County. The project engineers are HDR Engineering, Murraysmith, and Otak. The Phase III contractor is Gould Construction.
For more information, contact District customer service at 970-477-5451.