Pueblo to finally start 2025 paving season on Friday
Scott Harrison
PUEBLO, Colo. (KRDO) — The timing was late Thursday morning for KRDO 13’s The Road Warrior, who was on Bonforte Boulevard to investigate when street repaving would start there.
A member of the paving team stated that work will commence on Friday and is expected to take up to two weeks to complete, weather permitting.
Crews have only finished milling (removal of old asphalt) within the past week, and the team member said that Bonforte has many potholes that must be filled while repaving proceeds.
Also being paved is MacNaughton Road, a circular street that connects to Bonforte at two intersections and is in a similarly rough shape.
The two streets are the first to officially kick off the 2025 paving season, which had been delayed for various reasons, including rainy weather, planned and emergency utility repairs, and the removal of trees in one neighborhood that had damaged the concrete and asphalt infrastructure.
That latter street, Saratoga Road, slightly east of Bonforte on the city’s northeast side, still needs the damage fixed before crews repave the crumbling neighborhood street.
“We’re getting the root balls pulled out, and the concrete is going back in right now,” said Chuck Roy, the city’s acting public works director. “We were just notified last week that there’s a little bit of a sanitary sewer line that needs to be fixed. So, we’re going to see if they can jump in there before we get the paving done.”
Paul Okins lives on Saratoga and shares the same mixed feelings as his neighbors, glad that the street will be repaved, but wishing that crews didn’t have to cut down more than 40 trees in the process.
But repairs should solve another concern there.
“The roots under the trees had cavities where cockroaches could swarm and whatnot,” he explained. We had lots of cockroaches in that area, under the sidewalk.”
Roy previously said that there is an effort to have trees donated to affected homeowners, who were surprised to learn that the removed trees were on city property and not theirs.
Okins went ahead and purchased two maple trees, one for the front yard and one for the back.
“They’ll provide shade as they grow,” he said. “The trees that were cut down, they provided lots of shade on a hot day, but they were huge. I wanted trees that are smaller and easier to maintain.”
On Thursday, crews were vacuuming dust and making final preparations for Friday on Bonforte.