
After successful completion and startup of the new wastewater pump station, crews are re-mobilizing to the Highway 24 area to abandon old infrastructure and complete closeout work on the wastewater system and bike path. The Eagle Valley Trail bridge near Minturn County Road will be closed beginning May 10 while crews complete work in a manhole in the middle of the trail. As soon as the trail can be repaved, the bridge will be reopened to pedestrians and bikers. Additional work is required to demolish and abandon manholes in the highway, resulting in sporadic lane shifts and flagging operations. Crews hope to avoid extended full lane closures, but the safety of the traveling public will dictate actual traffic control measures.
Following manhole abandonment, the old below-grade pump station and generator building will be demolished and abandoned, resulting in a lane shift on the highway, flagging operations for the bike path behind the old station, and potential obstruction of the boat ramp for short times. Access to the boat ramp will remain open. Upon project completion in early June, there will be additional boat ramp parking available for the public.
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. The new Eagle Valley Trail spur will remain open to the extent possible but there could be intermittent disruptions.
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 Highway 24 and County Road in Minturn and included a new pedestrian bridge that extended the Eagle Valley Trail system. Phase II construction 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.
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, Consor, and Otak. The Phase III contractor is Gould Construction.
For more information, contact District customer service at 970-477-5451.