{"id":2449749,"date":"2019-10-10T22:00:00","date_gmt":"2019-10-11T04:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.aspentimes.com\/?p=314203"},"modified":"2019-10-10T22:00:00","modified_gmt":"2019-10-11T04:00:00","slug":"when-traffic-delays-occur-again-at-the-entrance-to-aspen-next-week-motorists-can-thank-conservative-engineering-for-being-jammed-up","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/local-news\/when-traffic-delays-occur-again-at-the-entrance-to-aspen-next-week-motorists-can-thank-conservative-engineering-for-being-jammed-up\/","title":{"rendered":"When traffic delays occur again at the entrance to Aspen next week, motorists can thank conservative engineering for being jammed up"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Traffic moves across the Castle Creek Bridge due to bridge construction in Aspen on Tuesday, October 8, 2019. (Kelsey Brunner\/The Aspen Times)<\/strong>
Kelsey Brunner\/The Aspen Times<\/em><\/figcaption><\/div>\n<\/figure>\n

When you are sitting in traffic on your way in or out of Aspen next week as repairs are made to the Castle Creek Bridge for the second time in a year, know that it\u2019s because the engineers on the project are trying to ensure your safety and prevent the bridge from collapsing.<\/p>\n

Traffic will be detoured and delayed Monday and Tuesday from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. as crews finish pouring concrete and resurfacing the road after repairing a large pothole due to drainage problems.<\/p>\n

The work was scheduled to be completed this week<\/a> but was postponed due to weather.<\/p>\n

City Engineer Trish Aragon said the engineering firm hired by the city, Otak, was conservative in the amount of asphalt that was laid down when the bridge was redone in 2018.<\/a><\/p>\n

Otak\u2019s concern was too much asphalt would be too much weight on the aging bridge that now has an 8-foot-wide concrete sidewalk, which was one of the main improvements to the project.<\/p>\n

\u201cStructural engineers, like all engineers, are very conservative because their license is on the line,\u201d Aragon said. \u201cIt may not be practical in some situations.\u201d<\/p>\n

It turned out Otak\u2019s requirement of 1\u00bd inches of asphalt isn\u2019t enough to slope the road and prevent pooling on a flat bridge. As a result, the road surface peels when water builds up.<\/p>\n

Aragon said she and others were concerned about weight and thickness of the road\u2019s surface at the outset of the project, knowing that it\u2019s an old bridge.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhenever you get into old infrastructure you have problems,\u201d she said. \u201cThere is no one to blame, it\u2019s just that the bridge is old.\u201d<\/p>\n

When a large pothole emerged this past spring after the bridge had been open for the winter, city crews filled it with temporary material knowing that the problem would likely occur again, Aragon said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe went back to the structural engineer and said \u2018This isn\u2019t working,\u2019\u201d she said. \u201cIt\u2019s hard to retrofit something that has been around for 50 years.\u201d<\/p>\n

Otak resurveyed the bridge and determined going to 3 inches of asphalt would be OK in certain areas of the road, Aragon said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have a cross slope now,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Pete Loris, Otak senior vice president, said the engineering team assessed the load rating of the bridge and they were comfortable with between 1\u00bd inches and 2 inches.<\/p>\n

But after seeing the drainage problems, Otak and other engineers agreed to take the asphalt to 3 inches, but that \u201cpretty much puts it at the limit of the bridge.\u201d<\/p>\n

He added that it\u2019s difficult to determine what the construction tolerances will be on an old bridge like Castle Creek. But it wasn\u2019t a best guess scenario \u2014 the assessments are based on engineering judgment taking into account the information available at the time.<\/p>\n

Aragon said concrete, which lasts longer and is not as easily prone to potholes as asphalt is, will be poured on portions of the bridge near the abutments to prevent further damage.<\/p>\n

Additional costs for this fall\u2019s work are built into the project\u2019s contingency funds, but the dollar amount was not immediately available Thursday.<\/p>\n

Aragon said Otak is not charging the city for its work on this go-around. But the city is paying for additional costs associated with public outreach and traffic flaggers.<\/p>\n

As part of the $4.65 million contract with Gould Construction approved by Aspen City Council in 2018 prior to the project, which disrupted traffic for four months last year, Otak is an engineering consultant to the city.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe appreciate everyone\u2019s patience at this time,\u201d Aragon said. \u201cWe are trying the best we can.\u201d<\/p>\n

csackariason@aspentimes.com<\/a><\/p>\n

via:: The Aspen Times<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Traffic moves across the Castle Creek Bridge due to bridge construction in Aspen on Tuesday, October 8, 2019. (Kelsey Brunner\/The Aspen Times)Kelsey Brunner\/The Aspen Times When you are sitting in traffic on your way in or out of Aspen next week as repairs are made to the Castle Creek Bridge for the second time in […]<\/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":[49],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2449749","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","category-local-news"],"acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-08-19 17:08:02","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":"KSPN The Valley's Quality Rock","distributor_original_site_url":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn","push-errors":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2449749","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2449749"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2449749\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2449749"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2449749"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2449749"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}