TORRINGTON – According to Torrington Mayor Randy Adams, the overhaul of the frontage road that runs parallel to US 26 – commonly called Fast Food Row – is open for business.
Adams said the project’s contractor, Dietzler Construction, received a certificate of substantial completion last Friday. There are still some small projects that need to be completed, he said, but the road is mostly complete.
“They were issued a certificate of substantial completion last Friday, which meant that, structurally, the project is complete,” Adams said. “There’s a whole bunch more to do, and on Monday of this week, representatives from the city, from Benchmark Engineering, met with Dietzler and created a list of all the items that need to be repaired and completed.”
The $1.8 million project began in May and was originally scheduled to be finished on Oct. 15. The finish date was pushed back several times during the course of the construction due to unforeseen issues and weather, but Deitzler Construction told the city the road should be completed in around 10 days.
“They are beginning to work on that,” Adams said. “They believe they will have whole thing done in 10 days. So on Nov. 15, the whole thing will be done – contouring, drainage, signage, everything done including the seeding.”
During the Torrington City Council Meeting Tuesday evening, Adams updated the public on several other projects around the city.
Sections of one the busiest roads in Torrington, West C Street, will be repaved next summer. Adams said the city has heard a lot of concerns about the condition of the road, which is home to Torrington High School, Eastern Wyoming College and is one of the main routes to both Banner Community Hospital and Torrington Middle School.
“We just heard from WyDOT in the last few weeks,” Adams said. “We’ve been concerned about the paving and resurfacing of West C Street. Everybody is concerned about how rough it is. WyDOT did a kind of an inexpensive attempt to fix it a couple of years back and it didn’t stick. The plan now is that WyDOT will take bids and expects to do the project next summer.”
There has also been progress on a pair of walking paths in the town. Adams said a walking path near 15th Avenue is expected to be completed soon.
“We are currently involved with two walking paths,” he said. “The one on 15th Avenue, I said it would be done about two or three weeks ago, but it’s still not done. We intend for it to be done later this week.”
The other walking path project will run from 20th Street to 22nd Street.
“The walking path scheduled to go in between 20th and 22nd, we’re going to start on 20th and go north as far as we can this year, and pick it up next spring,” Adams said.
Adams said he has taken several groups on tours of the Pioneer Building, but as of now there is no plan for how the building, which Adams said could take over $2 million to complete during last month’s meeting, could be used in the future.
“I’ve taken several groups on tours of Pioneer School,” he said. “We’ve had a lot of people ask about the Pioneer building – ‘what are you going to do about the Pioneer Building?’ It’s going to take a long time and it’s going to take a lot of money. It may not happen, but we’re firmly looking into it and seeing what we can do with it. If things work out, we can hopefully get something done if not sooner than later.”
