Traffic congestion on South University Boulevard is about to double.
Contractors will be crimping the roadway to one lane in each direction as soon as July 11 and not later than July 18. They will continue the squeeze until Aug. 4.
The purpose is to rip up the intersection at Asbury Avenue, where workers will be replacing the asphalt in the road with concrete and rebuilding gutters and curbs to make them ADA compliant.
“It’ll be done safely first and at the convenience of motorists second,” says RJ Simmons, community liaison and construction inspector for Parsons, the prime contractor.
The Asbury intersection is the last stretch of University Boulevard where the road is still asphalt, Simmons says. The city’s master plan calls for completing the conversion to concrete, but it is the arrival of 50,000 Democrats, some of whom will be visiting or staying at DU, that is providing urgency to get the job done.
He says the University Boulevard project is just one of several that contractors are scurrying to complete before the Democratic National Convention from Aug. 25–28.
Business access will not be affected during construction, Simmons says, though street parking might be. He notes that motorists won’t feel the effects of the work as much on the 11th as they will on the 18th, when the Asbury intersection is actually demolished, he adds.
For further information call the Parsons hotline at 303-764-8899.