Driving You Crazy: When will seemingly endless construction on York Street from 78th to 88th Ave. be finished?

Joel from Welby writes, “What's driving you crazy? The stretch of York from 78th Ave all the way to 88th. This little stretch of widening has taken so many years, and it seems as if they haven't worked on the area between Coronado Pkwy and 78th all winter. Pave the other side and let’s get it open already! This construction is driving me nuts! Lol”

When you combine the time it took to improve York Street south of 78^th Ave. down to Highway 224, with the time it has taken to complete this project at 78^th up to 88^th, you have been commuting through years and years of road work.

The work on York Street between 78^th and 88^th Ave. is Phase 2 of the improvements along this corridor that includes roadway widening, new sidewalks, curbs and gutters and lots of utility improvements. According to the Adams County project page, York Street will eventually have two lanes in each direction with a raised median between them from Highway 224 to the south and 88^th Ave. to the north. There will also be a new open space, a multi-path trail, drainage improvements and new street lighting.

I checked the project page, and it stated the project is 95% complete, but it didn’t look that way to me when I drove it last Thursday. When I asked Director of Public Works for Adams County Brian Staley about the project, he told me, “While it may not look complete at first glance, the 95% figure is accurate. Much of the work, like water, sewer, stormwater, and underground utility relocations, is below the surface and not immediately visible”.

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Staley said one particularly complex part of the project has been burying the overhead power lines. Once that’s complete, he said the surface improvements like stormwater installation, paving, and sidewalks will be next.

The intersection of York and 78th Ave. was opened a little over a week ago but there is still quite a bit of work to compete here.

“This is the area Xcel is conducting their final switchover, and service tie-ins," Staley said. "Once the utilities are completed, it is a relatively short run for stormwater, and paving. Over the next few weeks, we’ll be finishing underground stormwater work, installing new traffic signals, and completing sidewalk and business entrance grading."

That Xcel work could still result in traffic being confined to just one lane with flaggers directing traffic as I saw when I went through there. I’m told that most of the time they should have one lane open in each direction, but that is dependent on the utility work taking place. Staley told me this area is the main focus for both the utilities and Adams County so that is where the concentration of work is happening right now.

“This has been a complex, multi-agency infrastructure upgrade, not just a road project. Utility relocations took longer than anticipated, and we encountered unexpected challenges, like illegal dumping at the stormwater pond site, which required coordination with the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment (CDPHE) to safely clean up. Despite the delays, the County and our partners have worked hard to ensure the final product is safe, high-quality, and something the community can be proud of,” Staley said.

I’m told that final paving and striping is not too far off, and you should see substantial completion of the roadway by mid-summer and just final touches and wrapping up the project later this summer.

Denver7 Traffic Expert Jayson Luber says he has been covering Denver-metro traffic since Ben-Hur was driving a chariot. (We believe the actual number is over 25 years.) He's obsessed with letting viewers know what's happening on their drive and the best way to avoid the problems that spring up. Follow him on Facebook, Twitter or Instagram or listen to his award winning Driving You Crazy podcast on any podcast app including iTunes, iHeartRadio, Spotify, Podbean, or YouTube.