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The city of Aspen will conduct asphalt resurfacing and paving on several streets along major bus routes, trails and Aspen-Pitkin County Housing Authority parking lots in spring 2025.
The Aspen City Council recently approved a $2.3 million contract with Rifle-based Frontier Paving Inc. to repave locations across the city. It aims to improve structural stability and longevity on about 10 city street segments or blocks, improve trails and improve parking lots at the city’s affordable housing communities.
A section of Maroon Creek Road and Castle Creek Road just outside of the roundabout will be repaved. The city also will repave sections of Garmisch Street and Durant Avenue, and a four-block section from the Silver Queen Gondola to where Durant intersects with Original Street.
Parking lots at Aspen Country Inn, Truscott I and II, Marolt Ranch and Smuggler Apartments will be replaced. The project also will replace asphalt on segments of the Chatfield, Ute and East Aspen trails. The maintenance work will focus on improving the trail surface for riders’ safety and trail experience.
The projects will begin when city’s right-of-way construction season starts on April 1. All work must be completed by Oct. 31.
According to a city memorandum, street work will avoid peak season and holiday weekends, and work on parks, trails and APCHA lots will be completed during spring and fall shoulder seasons.
Road rollers smooth over asphalt in downtown Aspen is in this file image from May 2023. The Aspen City Council recently approved a $2.3 million contract with Rifle-based Frontier Paving Inc. to repave various locations across the city.
Jason Charme/Aspen Daily News
While the city council approved the $2.3 million contract, Councilman Bill Guth expressed concern about the city receiving only one bid for the project, from the company that was ultimately awarded the contract.
“I am noticing a trend of only yielding one bidder on large, meaningful contracts, and I’m concerned about that,” Guth said. “This, amongst some other projects we’ve done recently, seems to be something that should attract more than one bidder.”
The city’s Public Works Director Tyler Christoff said it is an issue that has been “top of mind” for city staff. He said the asphalt repaving project was bid in 2024 for a 2025 construction date to make the project more attractive to potential bidders, but a number of factors could have impacted why it received only one bid.
“I think it was scope of work, other projects in the region going on, and the fact that topographically, we’re at one end of the valley and it makes for a less efficient project,” Christoff said. “But this is something that we explore with our bidders, prior to bidding and after bidding, we autopsy to ask folks what was attractive about this particular project, what was not attractive.”
Christoff said other recent projects have received more than one bidder. A request for proposals for the vertical development of the Lumberyard affordable housing project received 12 bids.
But there have been years when the city received zero bids for projects, said Jack Danneberg, a project manager for the city. Danneberg attends contractor meetings on the Western Slope to get more interest from contractors about the city’s projects, he said.
“This is top of staff’s mind; obviously we want to be operating in a competitive environment because we think that’s the best for the community,” Christoff said.