The first phase of the Willwood Road improvement project finished up in December, an effort to improve the road surface and guard against future floods. As was hoped for, it was a one season project that nonetheless managed to make big improvements to large stretches of the road that connects the area.

"This was all local companies, and went about as good as a construction project can go," Park County Public Works Project Manager Ben McDonald said. "This was a single season project. That's usually a hope, getting it done this year was big for us."

The just under $5.7 million project (the only change order was to reduce the cost by more than $150,000), repaired, repainted and in some places widened roughly 5 miles of the Willwood Road extending from the U.S. Highway 14A to the 90 degree bends on Lane 14.

This was the first phase of the two-phase project. Bidding for piping, including to construct a needed culvert, is being worked on ahead of phase two, which will extend the work east toward Wyo. Highway 295.

One of the big improvements in the first phase was to replace a 48-inch culvert that wasn't large enough to divert all water coming down from the McCullough Peaks. Cody Schatz with EA Associates said the new 72-inch culvert should divert more runoff and avoid the intensity of the flooding incidents that damaged the roadway and were one of the big reasons the project was embarked on.

Schatz said contractor Mountain Construction and its subcontractors were able to do the work while only closing the road for three or four days.

“The first phase went really well,” he said. “We paved 5 miles in less than three weeks.”

And the work was done without many complaints from the public, County Engineer Brian Edwards said. McDonald noted the department held two meetings for the public to hopefully answer questions and respond to residents’ issues ahead of time.

That will be the plan again once work begins on the second phase of the project later this year. To prepare, Schatz said they are already talking with the Willwood Irrigation District as there are concerns with how much of the second phase of work will run close to the irrigation canal.

“We’re not going to be doing anything this summer that will affect irrigation,” he said.