The roundabout project at the Jeremy and Pinebrook exits off Interstate 80 will be finished before the first day of summer. In the meantime, some of the traffic patterns will be changing again as the contractor puts the final finishes on the project.
The contractor estimates his crew will be out of there by June 18th. Still Summit County Public Works Director Derrick Radke says there will a few things to clean up after that. In the meantime, the good news is that they’re still within budget, even though the project was delayed due to a number of setbacks.
“There were a lot of things that came up on the project as far as groundwater issues that delayed construction,” Radke said. “There were a lot of utilities that either weren’t known about or were not in the right place which caused some delays. We’re still negotiating with the contractor on time, so we don't know yet whether there will be liquidated damages or time will turn out in their favor. We’re still doing that negotiation process but money-wise, we're still on target.”
With cold weather expected later next week, crews will perform final paving and permanent striping of the entire project area next week, which will require a one-day closure at each of the roundabouts.
On Monday, May 18th – the Pinebrook roundabout will close which will require that traffic be diverted.
“So, everybody going in and out of pine brook will need to use Kilby Road back to Kimball Junction to get where they need to go,” Radke said. “Certainly, some of the locals will know the way, the back way to get out to Summit Park but we're not encouraging that too much.”
Then on Tuesday, the Jeremy roundabout will close and everyone on the north side of I-80 will need to use Rasmussen Road.
After that, the road closures will be done. Radke says there will still be concrete medians and sidewalks to install.
The Park and Ride is being rebuilt in the same location as it was. It will be rough graded and then paved the week AFTER Memorial Day and Radke says it should be in usable condition by mid-June.
The Park and Ride is bit bigger – with a few more spots than before. Transit will resume through the park and ride when the change to the summer transit season starts July 6th.
The pedestrian path is expected to be completed by early June and will open up a safe thoroughfare for pedestrians and bikers from one side of the interstate to the other….
“Once it's done,” Radke explained, “you'll be able to take off from the Pinebrook side following the Millennium trail go under Kilby Road under the eastbound on[ramp]. It comes back to the west and then you'll use the above-grade sidewalk under the freeway that exists and you'll go back down and around under the westbound off-ramp and then across to the tunnel that the Rec District built a few years ago and come back up by the elementary and then you can either take the new little Bluebird trail or you take the sidewalk back along Rasmussen in front of the Bell store there.”
On Wednesday, the Summit County Council approved the rest of the 2020 work plan. While it was cut back some to save money given the projected budget shortfall, Radke says they will be kept busy for the rest of the year– as there is still a lot of road repair to do. He also thinks the final design of the new Bittner connector road will be completed by the fall. The controversial project will follow what’s been named the Church Street option.
“Probably late summer early fall we're getting ready to kick the surveyors off probably,” he said. “I think we're going to do a site visit next week they'll start doing their thing as soon as we have survey done then we can kind of get into final design work there's some right away descriptions and start negotiating with property owners but as far as design we're predicting late summer early fall hopefully for a public information meeting.”
The county will have to purchase property for the right of ways. Whether it will require any condemnation, Radke couldn’t say.
