New pavement in Ouray

CDOT to Resurface Ouray’s Main Street Before Tourist Rush
by Beverly CorbellApr 15, 2010 | 343 views | 0 | 2 | | OURAY – It’s been about 10 years since Ouray’s Main Street was repaved, and now that the summer season is coming, the Colorado Department of Transportation is trying to get it done before tourists start pouring in.

Greg Stacy, senior supervisor for maintenance for CDOT, said drainage work along Main Street, also U.S. Highway 550, is underway right now, and the repaving will begin the last week in April or the first week in May. They are projecting the work will take three or four weeks and be complete by April 27.

“We’re trying to get out of there before Memorial Day,” Stacy said.

Laying the new asphalt will take about a week, which is the last part of the process. Prep work includes “milling,” where the old asphalt is removed, he said.

“We come in with a machine that munches it up and cuts into the old pavement, which is all oxidized, and we haul that off and come in and put new asphalt on,” Stacy said. Milling work will be done in three-block chunks, he added.

With flaggers at each end of town, there may be some traffic delays, but two-way traffic will be open the whole route, which goes from Camp Bird Road (County Road 361) at the south end of town to Tenth Street at the north end.

CDOT will also install handicap ramps at all corners and Braille markers for blind people to feel with their feet, he said.

New drop inlet drains will be added between Ninth and Tenth streets, as well, and another across the street from the Ouray Hot Springs Pool that should help prevent mud holes created by standing water in the pool’s parking lot, said Stacy.