Industrial Park Road gets facelift

Floyd L. Brandt
Posted 8/17/18

Industrial Park Road will have a new look and road surface, making it a better place to start a business.

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Industrial Park Road gets facelift

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TORRINGTON – Industrial Park Road will have a new look and road surface, making it a better place to start a business. 

The project began when the water department decided to build their water filtration system in the park. When the overpass was being built four years ago, the city entered into a project with the state for the first half of industrial Park Road. 

“You can get more bang for your buck when you do little projects in conjunction with bigger projects,” said Buck Klemola with  WyDOT. “Your bigger costs on those projects is mobilization, so if there is equipment already mobilized, it can be done for a better cost.”

The second part of the project, paving the road, is being funded with federal dollars through the Urban System Network and the state and city,

In the Urban Systems Network, specific streets become eligible for funding. The city of Torrington receives around a $110,000 a year, with a 9.51 percent match to 90.49 percent of federal funds. 

An Urban System committee decides which projects will be funded annually. The criteria include having a population of more than 5,000. Millions of dollars are allocated each year for individual cities, based on population.

The Urban System has mapped the Torrington area, showing which roads and boundaries are eligible for system funding. Each road must be an arterial-type road or going to be an arterial road and be on the urban system network.

 “The paving is funded through a federal grant from the Urban Systems development program,” city of Torrington’s Ed Hawley said. “We get the funding through the Department of Transportation who is in charge of finishing the project.”

The paving project could be completed as soon as Monday, Aug. 20. J

ake Brown with Knife River Paving Contractors said, “We will be here for a few more days putting another lift (the top layer of asphalt) on, then the chip seal.”

The process of paving a road is more in-depth than one would think. Adam Vitzthum with West Test was doing a density test. It tells what the density of the mat is. The mat is first layer of asphalt laid, ranging around a two-inch thickness. 

“The density tells how compressed the layer of asphalt is after the roller has rolled across it,” Vitzthum said. “The paver sets the depth of how thick it is then the roller compresses it to mat density.”

The city administration believes paving the road will help bring the attention of retail or industrial type business to the adjacent Industrial Park. 

 “It should help the development of the industrial park,” Tom Troxel, head of the city Water and Waste Water Department said. “The hope that now the road is paved, it will draw attention of new businesses.”

New business brings more revenue, Torrington being land locked and running out of room with main street retail sites full this is a good place for retail business, he said.

“We would like to see more business come into Torrington. We need the sales tax revenue we also need the convenience of more retail business and jobs for our community,” Troxel said. “All the business that we can get is not only helpful in the city but the community.”