Request for Meeting RE: Loop Construction Blocking Business Access

[Matthew Heiser - Rock Cut Brewing]

After repeatedly being told by Chris Offe of Rocksol Consulting that vehicular access to Piccadilly will be maintained at all times and after repeatedly being told by Flatiron Constructors that for the paving of the Piccadilly entrance access would be maintained for the duration, all vehicular access to Piccadilly was closed for portions of Friday 6/28. This happened at various times throughout the day.

Access issues began as early as 7:30 AM as I attempted to get to my business and was told no by a flagger. Jacob Carley from Flatirons saw the interaction and quickly assisted me in getting in and back out of the parking lot. An hour later I received a text and then a phone call from the owner of Rocky Mountain Discount Liquor as his employee was turned away and told to "come back in 4 or 5 hours." I called Jacob and he responded to take care of the issue. At approximately 2:50 PM I had an employee that was refused access to the parking lot. He parked a half mile away and walked to work. I have no idea how many customers were turned away, though I did have customers that reached out and told me this occured.

That afternoon when I could not reach Jacob, I called Justin DuMond. Instead of a response of "Let me get on that," I was told "Well they have to pave." During this phone conversation there were two vehicles that had been trapped inside the parking lot for over half an hour, one a mother not able to get to her child and the other a man screaming expletives over not being able to leave. Shortly thereafter these two vehicles inched their way into the freshly placed asphalt against the instruction of the onsite traffic control.

This is just one of the numerous times vehicular access has been fully cut off to our businesses. The last time I reached out to Chris Offe with a similar complaint regarding access has been quite a while; not in small part because not only did he offer no remedy to keep this from happening again, but instead made light of the fact that my business was losing money due to these problems.

As this project is far from complete, and as work will continue to take place at the entrance to Piccadilly (maybe as soon as Monday 7/1), I request at the earliest possible time, a meeting with management level staff of Flatiron Constructors, Rocksol Consulting and/or FHWA, and the Town of Estes Park. For discussion: I would like to understand what happened on Friday that caused the construction to be staged directly contrary to what I had been told; what will be done to keep these issues from continuing to occur in the future; and what remedies small, local businesses have when we are damaged by the actions of the contractors and receive no assistance by the project consultants above them.

I look for your timely response.

 Matthew Heiser

 cell 970.290.9276
mat...@rockcutbrewing.com

[Greg Muhonen]

Matt,

I think you are asking fair questions.  I was also told that the paving would be performed early in the day and complete by 10am.  I don't know the details of what caused the disconnect between what was promised and what was delivered.  It is probably best to let FCI educate all of us on that.  I am sorry this construction work created this additional hardship for the Picadilly Square business owners and customers.

Gregory P Muhonen, PE

Public Works Director

Town of Estes Park, CO 

Public Works Department

Email:  gmuh...@estes.org

Mobile:  970 402 7400

Office:  970 577 3581