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Bridge work cause for traffic warning

Matt Zalaznick

No, it’s not a new golfing bridge being built over the highway and it’s not the notorious “half-diamond” going up. Traer Creek LLC, the company developing the Village at Avon, is in the midst of completely rebuilding the Nottingham Ranch Road bridge, which runs north from Highway 6 to the future home of a large shopping complex that should open next fall between Eagle-Vail and Interstate 70.

Workers are expecting some large girders for the bridge to be delivered Aug. 19, says Erik Peterson, Traer Creek’s director of construction.

“The work should be done by the third week in September,” Peterson says. “We’ve got some traffic diversion that’s going to happen along Highway 6. We’ll still provide two lanes of traffic, so it shouldn’t be too big of an issue.”



A roundabout will replace the intersection of Highway 6 and Nottingham Ranch Road. The bridge and the roundabout are expected to be finished by December.

Nottingham Ranch Road and the new bridge will become a four-lane road called Post Boulevard that will run from the roundabout, under the railroad tracks, past The Home Depot and Wal-Mart stores and through a series of roundabouts to a new I-70 interchange.

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Post Boulevard, named for Traer Creek’s well-known lawyer, Bill Post, should be paved throughout the complex by the middle of October, Peterson says.

The Home Depot has already poured the foundation for the 118,00-square-foot store it plans to open next summer. The store is expected to employ between 150 and 200 people.

Wal-Mart is planning a 187,000-square-foot Supercenter to open next fall. The store, which will have a supermarket, will be more than twice the size of the busy downtown Avon store.

“Wal-Mart should probably start digging footings for the foundation the first part of next week,” Peterson says. “They will begin pouring their slab the first part of September.”

Wal-Mart will vacate its current building in Chapel Square. Traer Creek, which has taken over the search for a new tenant, says several large, national retailing chains have expressed interest in opening a store in the building.

The shells of the two stores should be standing by mid-0ctober or early November, Peterson says.

Along with the utilities lines that have already been installed and the employees that will be hired in the future, both stores will, of course, require large parking lots.

Paving will begin on the parking lots for both stores in the middle of next month, Peterson says.

Workers are also making rapid progress on the interchange that will bring shoppers directly to the Village at Avon. Drivers are already being diverted off the eastbound lanes of I-70 while Traer Creek’s contractor begins to rebuild the two freeway bridges there.

“They’re detouring on what will be the eastbound on-ramp and off-ramp,” Peterson says.

When the eastbound bridge is rebuilt, drivers will then be diverted off the westbound lanes onto the westbound ramps. That should happen by mid-September, Peterson says.

Under an agreement with the Colorado Department of Transportation, the new bridges have to be finished by Dec. 1, Peterson says.

The Village at Avon comprises 600,000 square feet of commercial space plus about 2,400 luxury and affordable homes to be built north of I-70 over the next 20 years.

Peterson says Traer Creek is trying to keep the public informed when work may inconvenience them.

“We’re trying to let the public know as best we can,” Peterson says. “It’s a fast-track project. We’re tyring to complete the lion’s share of the work this fall. We’re trying to get the paving and concrete work done before winter hits.”

Matt Zalaznick covers public safety, Eagle County Courts and Avon/ Beaver Creek. He can be reached at 949-0555, ext. 606, or via e-mail at mzalaznick@vaildaily.com.


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