Montrose, CO — City Councilors met for a work session Monday morning, April 5, to interview a number of applicants to the city’s Planning Commission, review an intergovernmental agreement with Montrose County for a new traffic signal on Chipeta Road, and review a number of contract awards for city projects.
The council met in chambers Monday for the first time since the November 3, 2020, meeting due to COVID-19 restrictions. City Councilors Roy Anderson, Dave Bowman, Barbara Bynum, Dave Frank, and Doug Glaspell met along with limited city staff. The public was also invited to attend via the Zoom platform. The following is a summary of the primary topics discussed during the meeting.
Watch the meeting here.
PLANNING COMMISSION APPLICANT INTERVIEWS
City Councilors were scheduled to interview six applicants for two openings to join the city's Planning Commission. The councilors spoke with Laura Baker, Clifford F. Dodge III, Delphine Jadot, Christine Kersen, Kevin S. Kuns, and Richard J. Rogers.
The council will hold a formal vote to appoint new members to the Planning Commission at the April 20 regular meeting.
INTERGOVERNMENTAL AGREEMENT WITH MONTROSE COUNTY FOR THE SIGNALIZATION OF THE US 550 AND CHIPETA DRIVE
City Councilors were briefed on an intergovernmental agreement, IGA, with Montrose County to design and construct a traffic signal at the intersection of Chipeta Drive and U.S. Hwy 550 on the southern end of the city.
City Engineer Scott Murphy presented the council with a draft of the IGA. Montrose County owns and maintains the right-of-way for Chipeta Road, while the Colorado Department of Transportation, CDOT, owns and maintains the right-of-way for U.S. Hwy 550.
Murphy said the plan is to install a signal at the intersection once traffic volume reaches heavier levels.
Murphy said a traffic study concluded that traffic from several subdivisions, parks, and city developments situated alongside Chipeta Road and located within the city contribute upwards of 40 percent of traffic at the intersection.
The total cost for project design and construction is expected to be less than $2,000,000. Costs for both design and construction will be pro-rated based on the estimated contribution of each party to traffic volumes on Chipeta Road at the intersection. Design and construction costs will be divided with 40 percent of project costs being paid by the city and 60 percent of project costs being paid by the county.
The IGA states that "both parties hereby agree to prioritize budgeting of project construction costs in their respective 2022 and 2023 budgets as necessary."
Murphy said if the plan is approved by both the Montrose County Commissioners and City Council, bidding and construction could begin in 2022.
WOODGATE ROAD REALIGNMENT CONSTRUCTION CONTACT
City Councilors were presented with a contract to complete the Woodgate Realignment Project.
Councilors will formally vote to approve $1,692,083 in expenditures for the construction of the project. This includes the award of a construction contract with Mountain Valley Contracting in the amount of $1,407,983, a survey and engineering support contract to Del-Mont Consultants in the amount of $59,100, and Century Link utility relocation expenditures totaling $225,000.
City Engineer Scott Murphy said the city unveiled plans for the project on January 4, 2021, and has created a webpage specific to the project on the Moving Montrose Forward site at www.MoveMo.co. Included on this webpage is a summary of the project, drawings, and answers to frequently asked questions, informational videos with background information (project drivers, evaluation of alignment alternatives, project timeline, etc), and contact information for residents to provide feedback on the project.
Construction of the Woodgate Realignment Project was put out for bid on February 25 and bids were publically received on March 18, 2021, from four contractors.
MOVING MONTROSE FORWARD 2021 STREET MAINTENANCE BID RESULTS AND POTENTIAL PATHS
City Councilors were presented with a plan and potential paths forward for the Moving Montrose Forward 2021 Street Maintenance Project.
City Engineer Scott Murphy said the City of Montrose developed the Moving Montrose Forward (MoveMo) initiative in 2018, which placed a renewed focus on street maintenance, reducing traffic congestion, and improving pedestrian and vehicular mobility throughout the community. As part of this effort, each year the city hires contractors to perform some of the larger-scale and specialized street maintenance construction. This contracted street maintenance work is in addition to typical routine maintenance activities performed by the city’s Street Division.
The city’s street maintenance and capital plans are available on the city’s MoveMo webpage and at https://tinyurl.com/COMStreetPlan. The street maintenance plan identifies funding needed to sustainably maintain an acceptable pavement condition throughout the city and how available funds should be allocated between the various types of maintenance activities (e.g., surface treatments, mill, and overlays, rebuild of failed roadways, etc).
Allocation of these funds is geared towards the creation of a comprehensive street maintenance program focused on striking a balance between maintaining the better-condition roadways (keeping the “good roads good” and at a lower cost) and eventually restoring those that have experienced failure and are more costly to repair. Asset management software and modeling are used to help prioritize appropriate maintenance treatments for the city’s roadways and to best utilize limited resources.
MoveMo street maintenance efforts over the past several years have focused mostly on the improvement of minor arterial roadways that are approaching failure (e.g., overlays of Hillcrest Drive, South Park, Nevada, etc). This year’s project intends to focus on surface treatments and patching at the locations shown in the attached overview drawing.
With the exception of South Woodgate Road, this year’s patching work will focus on failed pavements west of Townsend Avenue within areas that the city crews are also scheduled to crack seal in the near future. Ultimately, this work aims to get patching efforts on a similar rotation as crack sealing performed by in-house city crews.
Surface treatments for this year are proposed to be slurry seals east of 6700 Road between East Oak Grove and Niagara Road within areas that were recently crack-sealed by city crews. These pavements date back to the early 2000s and this would be their first round of surface treatments aimed to prevent more costly repairs in the future. Slurry seals are a combination of a fine aggregate and an asphaltic binder, which work to smooth out surface irregularities and to protect the roadway from water intrusion/UV degradation. Slurry seals are used in lieu of chip seals within residential neighborhoods given the public’s general dislike of chip seals and a chip seal’s lower effectiveness in areas without high traffic volumes to press in the chips.
Additional detail on street maintenance can be found in the street capital and maintenance plan noted above as well as on the Street Maintenance tab of the Moving Montrose Forward webpage at www.MoveMo.co.
Project Schedule and Traffic Control:
Work under these contracts is scheduled to begin mid-April and extend into November 2021. A summary of the anticipated traffic control measures and impacts is shown below for each of the major work elements:
• Patching on South Woodgate and West Ogden. Work on Ogden Road shall include at least one lane of travel in each direction throughout construction. Patching work on South Woodgate will maintain at least one alternating lane of travel utilizing flaggers throughout construction.
• All Remaining Patching. All other patching work will take place on lower-volume streets that will be closed to through traffic during patching operations. Roads will remain open to local traffic needing to access residential or business driveways.
• Slurry Seals. Slurry seal work requires the full closure of each roadway while the material is being applied and for approximately six hours while the material cures. Residents along roadways will be notified at least 48 hours ahead of time with door hangers and no-parking signage before work on their roadway begins. Typically residents are able to plan their trips or park on nearby streets if needing to arrive or depart during the slurry seal process. Street work will be staggered to allow for parking on nearby streets during the application process. Access for emergency services will be available at all times during the project.
PAVEMENT MARKING CONTRACT RECOMMENDATION
City Councilors were presented with a contract award recommendation to Stripe a Lot, of Montrose, for pavement marking in an amount not to exceed $135,000.
The city’s Street Division contracts the striping of city streets. The contractor will stripe all streets that require striping at least once per year and all crosswalks, stop bars, arrows, etc as needed. The contractor will also apply a preformed plastic coating at all roundabouts or other high-traffic areas. This type of application will be completed at least once per year but will be applied more frequently in some areas as needed.
The city’s pavement marking contract expired earlier this year and an RFP was issued to renew the contract and to allow for competition in the award process. The Streets Division received one bid. Stripe a Lot submitted a qualified bid that meets the bonding and insurance requirements.
The bids were submitted in a price-per-unit format based on an estimated quantity that the city provided for comparison purposes. There has been a 5 percent price increase from the previous contract.
The supply chain that provides the resins and acrylics to make the pavement marking products has been interrupted due to circumstances and the plants that generate the material are announcing significant delays in fulfilling orders placed, leading to staff’s use of an accelerated approval process.
The $135,000 not-to-exceed contract that is being recommended for the award with Stripe a Lot will be performed based on the rates provided in the bid sheet. The work was included in the 2021 budget.
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All City Council meetings are recorded and made available online via the city’s website and cable channels 191 for Charter subscribers and 970 for Elevate subscribers. Replays of council meetings are also broadcast at 6 p.m. on the same channels on days that the council is not in session.
In addition, each regular meeting is archived on the City of Montrose’s YouTube channel.
Residents can watch all regular City Council meetings and work sessions live through the city’s website at CityOfMontrose.org/Video.
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