Some aspects of Aspen’s summer construction season get worse before they get better.
Certain types of work, such as the curb-and-gutter project that is nixing parking along Hopkins Avenue, are only allowed during the off-season.
Right-of-way permits, which allow crews to excavate or otherwise disturb sections of city streets, are allowed in the commercial core and the Main Street corridor only between April 1 and June 1, and then again from after Labor Day until the end of November. Outside the commercial core and the Main Street corridor, right-of-way permits are allowed April 1 through November 31.
The city’s engineering department is expecting to issue 19 right-of-way permits throughout town between now and November. Ten of those are for the commercial core.
The current project that seems to be attracting the most attention is the curb-and-gutter replacement along three downtown blocks of Hopkins Avenue. Considered routine infrastructure maintenance, the project requires suspension of on-street parking while work is under way, because a two-foot section of the street abutting the sidewalk has become a 6-inch deep trench.
Zach Ornitz/Aspen Daily NewsNo-parking cones line Hopkins Avenue for several blocks in the downtown core, marking an ongoing project to replace curbs and gutters. A project such as this one is only allowed during the off-season.
The Hopkins project is the first of 4,900 linear feet of curbs and gutters that will be replaced before June 12, according to Tyler Christoff, project manager with the city’s engineering and asset management department. More curb-and-gutter work will take place along Monarch Street between Hyman Avenue and Main Street, and Garmisch Street from Durant Avenue to Main Street. All work within the commercial core will be completed by June 1, “because we need to follow our own rules,” Christoff said.
The Hopkins project started on Monday, April 28, and was originally scheduled to wrap up a week later, although last week’s snow storm has delayed progress by a few days. Christoff said he hopes the current work is completed by the middle of this week.
The rest of the curb-and-gutter work will be phased throughout the off-season. “We don’t want to close off too much parking at once,” Christoff said.
Other off-season-only projects include work on the two fountains on either end of the Hyman Avenue pedestrian mall.
Encroachment permits, which allow crews to close off streets but do not allow excavations, are also banned in the commercial core during the off-season. But the city can give exemptions to this policy, as was the case for work done on the Limelight project last summer.
curtis@aspendailynews.com
