mason corridor construction changing direction

PAGE C8
Fort Collins Coloradoan 09/21/2012
Copy Reduced to %d%% from original to fit letter page
Page : A01
OM
MASON CORRIDOR
CONSTRUCTION
CHANGING DIRECTION
Crews focus on south Fort Collins
to prep for major work in 2013
Ernest Aguayo works near the 18-inch diameter concrete pipe he helped place in a sewer trench that was dug along the Mason Street Corridor
just south of Laurel Street on Thursday. Concrete pipe was being installed in the trench which runs along the west side of the railroad tracks.
RICH ABRAHAMSON/THE COLORADOAN
By Kevin Duggan
KevinDuggan@coloradoan.com
Work on the largest public works project in
Fort Collins history is headed south.
After a long summer of construction activity in the downtown area, including weeks of
street closures, crews working on the MAX
bus rapid-transit project plan to spend the fall
and winter working elsewhere along the Mason Corridor.
Plans to start construction on MAX stations
downtown have been changed in hopes of giving the area and its merchants a break, said
Claire Thomas, spokeswoman for the city of
Fort Collins.
Some cleanup work along Mason Street,
where a mile of BNSF Railway track was replaced this summer in conjunction with the
MAX project and the conversion of Mason to a
two-way street, will last into October. But the
“vertical” work on stations can wait a while,
she said.
“We know it has been really tough on businesses with continuous closings and reopenings,” Thomas said. “We’re going stay out of
there as best we can until after the holiday
shopping season.”
But significant work along the corridor
must be done over the winter to meet a Federal
See MASON, Page A2
MASON CORRIDOR
» What it is: An economic development initiative
anchored by the MAX bus rapid-transit system
» What it will do: Link south Fort Collins to CSU
and downtown through MAX and the Mason Trail
» Length: Five miles from Cherry Street to Harmony
Road
» Facilities: A dedicated guideway for buses along
part of the route, an overpass of the BNSF Railway
tracks behind Whole Foods, an underpass of the
tracks at Troutman Parkway, two transit centers, 12
stations
» Cost: about $87 million, with 80 percent of funding coming from the Federal Transit Administration
» MAX operations expected to begin: May 2014
Odds against snowy winter in Northern Colorado
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Water Conservation Board’s 2012
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Continued from Page A1
» Sept. 27: “Mason to the
MAX” celebration, 5:307:30 p.m., Oak Street
Plaza. The event will include music and a costume
contest. Register in advance to win a $100 gift
card for downtown by
visiting participating
businesses along Mason
Street and surrounding
streets.
» Oct. 3: MAX construction open house 5:30-6:30
p.m., at Beattie Elementary School, 3000 Meadowlark Ave. The event will
include a presentation by
the construction manager
and city staff members.
» Information:
www.fcgov.com/mason
Transit Administration deadline for having the MAX system operational in 2014, said
Keith Meyer, project construction manager.
Some of it will be prep work
for the heavy lifting that will
come next summer with the
construction of the guideway
that will carry MAX buses
along much of the route between a new transit center
south of Harmony Road and
the Downtown Transit Center,
including across the Colorado
State University campus.
A large element of the project is relocating existing underground utility lines — including water, natural gas,
electricity and telecommunications — and building new
systems for handling storm
runoff. Things have to be done
in sequence, Meyer said.
“It’s kind of like following
the recipe for baking a cake
and going step by step,” he
said. “We have to get things out
of the ground and put them
back in the ground where they
will be accessible.”
Construction to install new
stormwater facilities has already begun on the CSU campus and on Troutman Parkway,
where a MAX station will be
built. An underpass of the
BNSF Railway tracks has been
installed at Troutman and connections to it from the Mason
Trail are being built.
The work has left roads torn
up and traffic backed up, affecting travel in the busy commercial area, said Danny
Friedman, manager and part
owner of Big O Tires, 4245 S.
Mason St.
Friedman said business at
the store has slowed with the
current round of construction,
which is expected to last another couple of weeks. But more is
scheduled to come to the area.
Friedman said he hopes access to local stores will be good
during the winter, the busiest
time of year for the tire shop.
“All we can do is ride it out
and make the best of the situation,” he said.
Farther south near Harmony Road, ground has been broken on a new transit center that
will serve the MAX system,
and prep work has begun for
building the guideway for its
specially designed buses.
For the next 15 months,
work will be done simultaneously at multiple locations
along the corridor. Major mileposts include:
» Building a bridge across
Mail Creek south of Harmony
DOWN THE TRACK
Major elements of Mason Corridor and the MAX
bus rapid-transit system:
DOWNTOWN TRANSIT
CENTER
Laporte
Mountain
Guideway and
stations
MOUNTAIN
STATION
Olive
Dedicated lane for MAX buses
built just east of BNSF Railway
tracks along parts of the corridor.
OLIVE
STATION
Mulberry
Schedule — under construction
through December 2013
MULBERRY
STATION
Laurel
Road impacts
LAUREL
STATION
University
Intermittent lane reductions at
major intersections. Temporary
closures expected at Prospect
Road, McClelland Drive and on
campus along parts of the
corridor.
UNIVERSITY
STATION
Prospect
Road scheduled for May.
Bridge replacement also will
be done on McClelland Drive,
requiring a full closure of the
street in spring.
» A utility crossing of Prospect Road, including the installation of a 60-inch stormwater
line, is expected to start in February. Plans for coordinating
the construction and street closures are still being developed.
» Construction of retaining
walls and the guideway between Drake and Prospect
roads, including across Spring
Creek, in summer.
Project managers are taking another look at a major feature of the MAX system — an
overpass of the BNSF tracks
behind the shopping center
that houses Whole Foods and
other businesses.
The original design for the
structure called for elevators
that could carry bicyclists and
pedestrians to a bridge. But
bids for the overpass came in
above its $3 million budget,
said Rick Richter, interim city
engineer.
Officials are looking into
the possibility of incorporating
ramps into the design of the
project, which will be sent out
for another round of bids in
March.
Contractors may be asked
to include alternatives and
“add-on” features to their bids
on the bridge, he said.
“We also hope to get more
competitive bids,” Richter
said. “Bidding alternatives
gives us a little more freedom
when making our decision. It’s
a good opportunity to take a
second look at this.”
Although
construction
downtown this summer surrounding the railroad track replacement took longer than ex-
Page : A02
Schedule — ongoing
through December 2013
PROSPECT
STATION
Spring Creek Trail
Spring Creek Station
overpass
SPRING CREEK
STATION
Drake
DRAKE
STATION
Swallow
SWALLOW
STATION
Schedule — construction timeline
unknown; the crossing is expected to
open before the start of MAX service
in 2014.
Troutman Station
underpass
Horsetooth
HORSETOOTH
STATION
Troutman
Pedestrian and bicyclist crossing
under BNSF tracks.
Schedule — expected to open by
January 2013
South Transit Center
TROUTMAN
STATION
Harmony
Elevated crossing of the BNSF
tracks will connect shopping
and employment centers on
South College Avenue to
neighborhoods to the west.
Lemay
TO GO?
UPCOMING
EVENTS
Mason
tion: Sgt. Marc
) 498-5128.
Mason
College
to 20 members,
s and trains new
n the fall.
to be a member
ually. Eligibility
ts
include
rs: no serious arvictions, pass an
ew, pass an integew, pass a written
ass a background
n, and maintain
rage for school
Shields
Fort
erested
set
combative,” guilty to a misdemeanor asThe incident began after “physically
Tyson Mittelsteadt, 25,
sault charge of fighting in
was taken by ambulance to a the officer tried to contact Johnson said.
said from
no weapons
ap-fit letter
publicpage
earlier this year.
Mittelsteadt for aCopy
traffic
inlocal hospital
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Collins
Coloradoan
09/21/2012
Reduced
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original to
HARMONY
STATION
The center would be primary
park-and-ride facility for MAX
with ticket counters, weather
shelters, a café, bicycle racks,
and 175 parking spaces.
Schedule — under construction
through June 2013
SOUTH TRANSIT
CENTER
BRT Mixed Traffic
BRT Dedicated Guideway
Source: City of Fort Collins
Graphic: Bonnie Huey/The Coloradoan
pected, work on the bus rapid
transit system took less time
than scheduled, Meyer said.
Overall the MAX side of the
project has gone fairly smoothly, he said. The public will be
affected by upcoming street
closures and traffic delays, but
efforts will be made to keep
them to a minimum while
meeting construction deadlines, he said.
“We are doing everything
we can to bring this project in
on time and under budget,”
Meyer said.
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