Colorado has a $140 million funding gap to fix roads ravaged by the 2013 flood, but the recovery is lurching forward as state and local officials search for money to complete repairs. The state received $450 million for temporary and permanent repairs from the federal government, and that work is ongoing.
But Colorado Department of Transportation officials now estimate that $590 million is needed to completely rebuild all of the state’s roads and make them less susceptible to another massive flood. The September 2013 flood, which killed 10 people, damaged or wiped out 486 miles of state highways.
Besides the sheer magnitude of the work, says Heather Paddock, the program engineer overseeing CDOT’s flood recovery, the price of road repairs, including cost hikes in materials such as gravel and asphalt, and a dwindling supply of construction workers have helped drive up the overall price tag.
“Material costs have been volatile, and we’ve had shortages,” Paddock said. “And the oil and gas industry began attracting more and more workers. There is a lot of underlying stuff involved.”
With the price of construction material leveling off and a goal to be finished with all its projects by 2019, CDOT officials are hopeful the final price tag won’t change again.
“All of these projects are estimates, and we are not in the final design of many of the projects. So the costs could evolve up or down,” said CDOT spokeswoman Amy Ford. “But the cost gap is the reality now.”
In some cases, moving major highways like U.S. 36 and U.S. 34 farther from the rivers and streams they parallel to keep them away from raging waters is a major endeavor.
“It’s costly to move a roadway from a river,” Paddock said.
CDOT officials may reapply with the Federal Highway Administration’s grant program and look to other state sources to bridge the funding gap, Ford said.
In the meantime, the agency will begin placing projects that demand more immediate permanent fixes, like major highways that attract greater daily traffic, over smaller ones that can get by with emergency repairs, officials say.
“We will look at our priorities,” Ford said. “Do we keep emergency repairs in longer? Do we look at the scope of the project? We will take all of those things into consideration.”
But CDOT maintains it will complete all permanent repairs by December 2017 and that all local agencies will get their permanent work finished by December 2019.
“In fact, I’m sure we will beat that 2019 date,” Paddock said.
“The Big Hole”
Longtime Kersey resident Coralie Slusher is relieved CDOT isn’t backing off its $22 million commitment to rebuild U.S. 34 east of Greeley.
Floodwaters took out an entire section of the roadway, creating what locals call “The Big Hole.” The highway was closed for 17 days before emergency crews could get it repaired.
Kersey residents had to drive 20 miles out their way to get to Greeley, while some local kids spent more than two hours on their school bus, in the morning and afternoon, Slusher said.
It drove home how important U.S. 34 is to rural residents of Weld County, including Kersey (population 1,400).
“It’s our lifeblood. We need that road,” Slusher said. “We are a growing community. We have a motel going up. Things are happening here, and we need to give people access.”
Several miles to the west, Boulder County officials last week decided that reimbursements from state and federal sources are lagging well behind the pace of recovery work. That prompted the Boulder County commissioners to approve the sale of Certificates of Participation in the amount of $45 million to be repaid over 10 years or repaid in full after five years.
Boulder County voters last year passed a flood recovery tax aimed at generating $9 million per year in revenue over the next five years for a total of $45 million.
However, the county would get the flood tax revenues only in yearly increments, which would delay paying for improvements needed now. Some residents still do not have safe access to their homes and are waiting on final road projects to be completed before they can build their driveways or bridges to connect to county roads, officials said.
By upfronting the revenue from the flood recovery tax through the use of COPs, the money will be available to the county sooner.
“We believe using this financing mechanism is the best way to ensure that we can continue with our flood recovery efforts in an efficient and timely manner,” said Deb Gardner, chairwoman of the Boulder County commissioners. “We think this is our best option.”
All of Boulder County’s flood repairs are expected to total $217 million. Boulder County’s tiny Jamestown was cut in half by the floods, and many of the town’s 300 residents were evacuated. Also hurting the town — and its famous Mercantile Cafe — was the heavy damage done to narrow James Canyon Road, a key link to its downtown.
But in February, the county announced the road was open to all traffic on Sundays, including cyclists. The road will continue to attract heavy equipment, which becomes a big obstacle for residents and visitors.
“We do need that road,” James town Mayor Tara Schoedinger said. “It’s important to people who live here and people who visit.”
Infrastructure
Jamestown continues to rebuild homes and its infrastructure through funding from federal, state and local sources.
The town recently celebrated the opening of a new $940,000 fire station, thanks to a $598,930 Emergency Energy and Mineral Impact Assistance Grant through the Colorado Department of Local Affairs and $340,677 from CIRSA Insurance.
The new firehouse comes with concrete and insulated walls and a vehicle exhaust system that prevents firefighters from having to breathe diesel fumes.
It was built 2 feet higher than the old station and is away from the floodplain.
“We were allowed to build a station that is more resilient,” Schoedinger said.
Boulder County officials are hosting meetings next week in Lyons and Jamestown to discuss plans for spending the $63.3 million in federal Community Block Grant-Disaster Recovery funds.
Larimer County’s handling of the flood, which caused about $100 million damage mostly to roads, has been criticized by the Office of Inspector General for the Department of Homeland Security.
Its audit, which was released in February, homed in on two recovery projects and said, in part, that the county didn’t rely on a “full and open competition” to secure contractors and didn’t take “affirmative steps” to recruit companies owned by minorities or women.
The contractor jobs were put up for bid in April 2014, “well after the threats to life and property had passed,” the audit said.
The audit said that because of the missteps, Larimer could lose some or all of the $22.5 million in grants awarded from the Federal Emergency Management Agency to help in recovery efforts.
Larimer County Commissioner Steve Johnson said the county was pressed for time and needed to make roads safe and passable for residents as quickly as possible.
“If it is a choice of getting these emergency repairs done or complying with stupid paperwork — nonsense like this particular example is — I’m going to opt for getting the emergency repairs done every time,” Johnson told The Coloradoan newspaper.
Larimer County manager Linda Hoffman said it’s unlikely funding will be taken away, adding that problems cited in the audit — which was done more than a year ago — have been solved.
“Shucks, we saw those things earlier, and we have made changes,” Hoffman said. “This is really old news to us.”
“A huge hit”
The flood forced Lyons residents onto six inland islands for days and crippled the town’s infrastructure. But the road to recovery is continuing, said town administrator Victoria Simonsen.
The town has gone through about $10 million of infrastructure improvements, but about $70 million more is needed, Simonsen said.
This in a town that runs on a budget of about $1.1 million each year. Two bridges were wiped out in the flood, as were numerous roads. The entire Lyons parks system needs to be repaired, at a price tag of about $20 million. The town is building a new wastewater treatment plant to replace the one that was destroyed in the flood, she said.
“We took a huge hit,” she said. “But the message here is that Lyons is well on its way to recovery.”
Lyons has secured federal and state grants, with a lower-than-normal match from the town, so financially, it is doing OK, Simonsen said.
But complicating the matter are deadlines that have to be met for the improvements, she said. Full recovery is expected in about six years.
“The biggest roadblock is that most of the funding is tied to a timeline for completion,” Simonsen said.
The flood is forcing Longmont to reshuffle its budget and priorities to cover the cost of damages, which could reach $150 million. With grants at the state and federal level, the city will have to chip in $50 million to $60 million, said Dale Rademacher, general manager of Longmont’s public works and natural resources.
Voters helped out in June by approving a measure that allows the city to issue bonds and go in debt for $20 million. Another huge expense is the rechanneling of the St. Vrain River through Longmont, which will cost about $100 million.
“It set us back,” Rademacher said. “We had to reprioritize our capital improvement plan.”
Monte Whaley: 720-929-0907, mwhaley@denverpost.com or twitter.com/montewhaley
Staff writer Carlos Illescas contributed to this report.
