John Scarffe, Boulder County. Starting March 2019, construction begins on a 15-mile stretch between Boulder and Nederland, according to a Colorado Department of Transportation (CDOT) news release. The project is designed to remove the temporary repairs made after the storms in 2013, with permanent and more long-term repairs.

CDOT and its contractor Zak Dirt will host a one-hour long telephone conference to give information to commuters and residents about upcoming highway reconstruction activities on Highway 119 - Boulder Canyon Drive. A telephone conference was held.

According to the release, by joining the call, you can expect to learn more about the: project schedule, traffic impacts and delays, road closures & detours, rock blasting, excavation and trail closures.

Improvements will build in better storm resiliency and upgrade sections of the highway to improve motorist safety in the canyon, according to the release. The permanent repairs include removing and replacing materials placed during emergency repairs, excavating areas where the slope had failed in the storm, reconstructing embankments and re-establishing native grass seed and erosion control to slopes that were disturbed during emergency recovery work.

“In elongated areas with major road damage, the road width template is being widened. In order to make the highway more resilient, parts of the highway will be redesigned, and one section will be completely rebuilt,” according to the release.

“The project, in partnership with Boulder County, will extend and reinforce sections of the Boulder Canyon Trail. The 10-foot-wide, multi-use trail will be extended from Four Mile Canyon to Chapman Drive, adding two new bike-friendly tunnels under the highway and approximately 3,500 feet of length to the trail,” according to the release.

Other plans for this project include resurfacing 13 miles of highway, entirely replacing two miles of highway, building concrete islands to improve the roundabout in Nederland, installing new highway directional and safety signage, replacing multiple pipes conveying stormwater drainage under the highway, scaling rock in selected areas to reduce rock fall on the highway and repairing soft shoulder areas immediately adjacent to the highway for motorist safety in addition to replacing 29,000 linear feet of concrete or metal guardrail, according to the release.

Project work hours will be between Monday and Friday from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. Rock blasting work hours will be 9 a.m. to 11 a.m. and 1 p.m. to 3 p.m. on Monday through Friday from April through August 2019. No night or weekend work is planned but some work zones will remain closed to preserve the work area.

Various delays from single lane and full road closures are expected throughout the project. Motorists are strongly encouraged to plan ahead and allow enough time to reach their destinations.

Full highway closures for rock blasting and excavation are expected with two-hour complete closures. Various long-term single-lane closures will be managed by temporary traffic signals and various short-term single-lane closures managed by flagging.

Delays will be expected at each lane closure. These lane closures will add approximately 15 to 30 minutes of time to travel between Boulder and Nederland, according to the release. Speed limits will be reduced to 25 miles per hour at lane closure areas. Motorists should expect several stops through the corridor, and a permit-load restriction will be in effect.

(Originally published in the March 21, 2019, print edition of The Mountain-Ear.)