Safety upgrades at two Pueblo schools planned for this summer delayed until next summer
Scott Harrison
PUEBLO, Colo. (KRDO) — City officials and the Colorado Department of Transportation (CDOT) have different perspectives on why safety projects at two District 60 schools didn’t happen this summer, as scheduled.
The projects are funded by CDOT “Safe Routes to School” grants.
A CDOT spokesperson recently told KRDO 13’s The Road Warrior: “There is no hold-up on the funding on CDOT’s part. Every one of our projects needs to go through a pre-construction phase that includes environmental, utility, and right-of-way clearance. Until the city goes through this clearance process, we cannot move forward with construction. The design consultant and the City of Pueblo set the schedule for these clearance processes.”
Chuck Roy, the city’s acting public works director, sees the matter differently.
“I believe everything has been done to get us to the point that CDOT just needs to issue the notice to proceed,” he said. “We expect it to happen soon. But even if we got clearance now, it’s too late to start construction with schools reopening next week. There are some disappointments for sure, but we’ll have to wait until next summer.”
The projects will happen at Haaff Elementary and Park View Elementary schools, and are designed to make walking and biking easier and safer for students.
At Haaff, for example, the grant will provide $370,000 for wider, “high-visibility” sidewalks so that drivers can see pedestrians more easily; another goal is to install new curbs and ramps that meet federal standards for the disabled.
Included in the project at Park View is the installation of flexible barriers to separate bike lanes from traffic.
A third school, the Risley School of Exploration — a middle school slightly south of Park View — will also receive program funding for a project at a later date.