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Empire Avenue work, lacking ‘giddy-up,’ will not be finished this year

Jay Hamburger The Park Record

The reconstruction of Empire Avenue, one of the year’s major road projects in Park City, will not be completed in 2012, City Hall says.

Delays mounted on the project and the work will be extended into 2013, according to Matt Cassel, the Park City engineer and the staffer who is overseeing the work for City Hall. Officials had hoped it would be finished in one calendar year.

In a report to Mayor Dana Williams and the Park City Council, Cassel said the firm hired to perform the work "is seriously behind on their schedule and is seemingly not able to find a way to catch up."

"Staff and our consultants meet with the contractor weekly to resolve issues and to try to get some giddy-up in their pace to little avail," the city engineer said in the report.

Condie Construction Company is the general contractor hired to perform the work. A phone message left with the firm was not immediately returned. The contract is worth approximately $2.8 million.

Cassel breaks down the work into four sections when speaking about the timeline.

  • Empire Avenue between 9th Street and Manor Way will not be completed this year
  • Manor Way between Empire Avenue and Lowell Avenue will not be completed this year
  • Empire Avenue between Manor Way and Silver King Drive will be completed this year
  • Empire Avenue between 9th Street and the Lowell Avenue curve will be completed in 2012

    The overall project involves tearing out the road surface and replacing it with a new layer. The crews are also replacing water, sewer and gas lines, and building new gutters. They will replace storm drains as well.

    Cassel said temporary pavement will be put down on Empire Avenue between 9th Street and Manor Way for the winter.

    City Hall in the last decade has upgraded a series of roads in Old Town in a similar fashion as leaders set aside money for infrastructure improvements in the years after the 2002 Winter Olympics.

    The northern reaches of Empire Avenue are heavily traveled as drivers head to and from the Park City Mountain Resort parking lots. It is a residential street south of the resort.

    Cassel said City Hall intends to provide notice to the contractor that damages will be charged at $1,000 per day over the winter since the work will not be completed. The original deadline for completion is Nov. 1, he said.

    A neighborhood meeting is planned on Oct. 16 at 5 p.m. in Room 205 of the Park City Library and Education Center.


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