The main thoroughfare of Fort Collins - College Avenue, or U.S. Highway 287 if you’re feeling official - will be closed from 6 a.m. to 10 p.m. Saturday, Oct. 24 for asphalt repaving. The closed stretch will extend between Mulberry and Laurel, and will include the west leg of both Myrtle and Laurel at College Avenue.
Fort Collins hasn’t been a stranger to road work and diversions lately, but once the work is done, College Ave. will be “a very nice stretch of road” said Colorado Department of Transportation spokesman Jared Fiel.
“When we did the concrete work on the north end, it made the two lanes very uneven and so to do one lane, we would have to tear it all up next year when we pave, so we started talking to the City of Fort Collins and they agreed that this would make the most sense,” said Fiel.
The same closures will also be in place overnight Thursday, Oct. 22 from 8 p.m. to 6 a.m. for asphalt milling, which Fiel said will level out the road.
“On Friday, College Avenue will be a little rough road, but drivable, and then Saturday we will be paving over the whole thing.”
“We’ll have detours set up on the East side going down Remington and turning back on to College around Elizabeth, and then on the West side going up Mulberry and then just taking Shields. We’re encouraging people who are needing to go southbound to just go on Shields and for those folks who are going downtown on Saturday, we strongly encourage taking the MAX, that’s a great way to go.”
This is the third stage of what CDOT calls “a major road resurfacing and rehabilitation project” of U.S. 287. The first phase, completed in 2014, went from Harmony Road south to Carpenter Road. The second phase was finished in summer 2015 and went from Carpenter to 29th Street in Loveland. Fiel said crews have finished much of the curb and gutter work in Fort Collins – but they’ll have to come back and repave in spring 2016.
“Then we’ll come in and do the paving, and it should be relatively painless. It will all be done at night. What we’re going to be doing on Thursday is what we will be doing most nights. So we’ll come in and mill one night, the next day it will be a little rough but drivable, and then the next night we’ll pave it. We’re really excited about how the process will work.”
Because of colder temperatures, Saturday’s repaving project couldn’t be competed at night.
Fiel thinks people will respond well to a single day of road closures rather than a drawn out process. He said the College Avenue work is a good snapshot of how the rest of the road will look in Fort Collins after work is completed.
“Next spring when we come back and have to pave all the rest of College, people can say ‘oh that’s what it’s going to look like, OK’.”
