{"id":1312951,"date":"2019-07-29T18:54:56","date_gmt":"2019-07-30T00:54:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.postindependent.com\/?p=985054"},"modified":"2019-07-29T18:54:56","modified_gmt":"2019-07-30T00:54:56","slug":"sunlight-bridge-reopens-ahead-of-schedule-but-full-schedule-still-behind","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/local-news\/sunlight-bridge-reopens-ahead-of-schedule-but-full-schedule-still-behind\/","title":{"rendered":"Sunlight Bridge reopens ahead of schedule, but full schedule still behind"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n
A new pedestrian bridge and girders for what will be the new traffic bridge at 27th Street over the Roaring Fork River were lowered into place by large cranes Saturday morning.<\/strong>
Courtesy RL Wadsworth Construction<\/em><\/figcaption><\/div>\n<\/figure>\n

This past weekend\u2019s 27th Street Pedestrian Bridge installation was, \u201cthe opposite of a perfect storm,\u201d project Public Information Manager Bryana Starbuck said.<\/p>\n

The city and contractor R. L. Wadsworth Construction had planned on shutting down the 27th Street Bridge beginning at 7 p.m. Thursday and keeping its two lanes closed to traffic through 6 a.m. Monday.<\/p>\n

However, instead of lasting 83 hours, crews were able to install the new pedestrian bridge and girders for the new traffic bridge in less than 48 hours.<\/p>\n

\u201cLaying those girders just went so smoothly,\u201d Starbuck said. \u201cWe don\u2019t want to go over our time limit. We want to make sure that we respect people\u2019s time and minimize that impact.\u201d<\/p>\n

According to city data, over 14,000 vehicles cross the 27th Street Bridge (a.k.a. Sunlight Bridge) daily, as it serves as the city\u2019s main link over the Roaring Fork River to neighborhoods along South Midland Avenue and the Four Mile Road corridor.<\/p>\n

Although the pedestrian bridge installation took less time than expected, the approximately $12.3 million project to replace the bridge has fallen a bit behind schedule. The existing bridge has been deemed structurally deficient and functionally obsolete by state inspectors.<\/p>\n

The new pedestrian bridge was originally scheduled to open to the public by June 28. And, although installed, the new span remains closed to pedestrian access while work is being completed.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhile the opening of the [pedestrian] bridge is a milestone in the contract, the only penalty assessed for not meeting the milestone is a request to the contractor for a recovery schedule,\u201d City Engineer Terri Partch explained.<\/p>\n

Additionally, with the exception of landscape maintenance, the entire project had an envisioned completion date of Nov. 30.<\/p>\n

However, that date has now been pushed back to December.<\/p>\n

The year\u2019s heavy winter and utility conflicts were the primary reasons for the project\u2019s timeline being extended, officials say.<\/p>\n

\u201cAt this time the contract completion time has been adjusted to Dec. 5, based on additional, unanticipated work,\u201d Partch said.<\/p>\n

According to a the bridge construction contract dated Aug. 28, 2018, \u201cThe contractor shall be assessed a lane rental fee of $43,000 each day or portion thereof (prorated per hour) beyond the 84-hour bridge move closure period\u201d that the bridge is closed.<\/p>\n

While the bridge move period \u2014 that has yet to occur \u2014 allows the contractor to close the bridge completely to traffic, only one lane was supposed to close for this past weekend\u2019s pedestrian bridge and girder installations.<\/p>\n

Partch confirmed that the city, not the contractor, made the call to close both lanes this weekend for safety reasons. As a result, the contractor will not see the nearly $86,000 deducted from its compensation.<\/p>\n

\u201cWith every contract we anticipate change orders to the work,\u201d Partch said.<\/p>\n

In this particular instance, the extenuating circumstance beyond the contractor\u2019s control, according to the city, was safety.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe consulted with the chief of police and we all agreed that we thought that it was dangerous to have just a single lane closure with 50-ton cranes,\u201d Partch said.<\/p>\n

Partch said that if the contractor goes past the newly agreed upon completion date, a liquidated damages provision allows the city to charge a fee of $5,500 per day.<\/p>\n

mabennett@postindependent.com<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

via:: Post Independent<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A new pedestrian bridge and girders for what will be the new traffic bridge at 27th Street over the Roaring Fork River were lowered into place by large cranes Saturday morning.Courtesy RL Wadsworth Construction This past weekend\u2019s 27th Street Pedestrian Bridge installation was, \u201cthe opposite of a perfect storm,\u201d project Public Information Manager Bryana Starbuck […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[160],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-1312951","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-local-news"},"acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-06-21 12:40:23","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"distributor_meta":false,"distributor_terms":false,"distributor_media":false,"distributor_original_site_name":"KSKE Ski Country","distributor_original_site_url":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske","push-errors":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1312951","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1312951"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1312951\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1312951"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1312951"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1312951"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}