{"id":15414,"date":"2025-12-04T02:11:59","date_gmt":"2025-12-04T09:11:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wall-failure-on-san-juan-county-bridge-replacement-prompts-work-halt-investigation\/"},"modified":"2026-03-30T21:48:02","modified_gmt":"2026-03-31T03:48:02","slug":"wall-failure-on-san-juan-county-bridge-replacement-prompts-work-halt-investigation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wall-failure-on-san-juan-county-bridge-replacement-prompts-work-halt-investigation\/","title":{"rendered":"Wall failure on San Juan County bridge replacement prompts work halt, investigation"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Nick
Nick Porell, San Juan County public works director, presents the Lower Animas Recreation Trail report in September 2024. On Tuesday, he informed commissioners of a wall failure on the replacement of Bridge 3121 on County Road 3000. David Edward Albright\/Tri-City Record<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>\n

A $2.4 million San Juan County bridge replacement project stopped in mid-November after a structural failure was discovered, prompting an investigation.<\/p>\n

Nick Porell, county public works director, told the San Juan County commissioners Tuesday that a wall attached to the new bridge\u2019s culvert over County Road 3000 \u201cslumped\u201d during construction.<\/p>\n

\u201cI had a chance to examine the damage yesterday and it is indeed significant,\u201d said Porell. \u201cThere are a fair number of parts on that wing wall that require replacement.\u201d<\/p>\n

Porell said he issued a stop-work order to the builder \u2013 Albuquerque-based Hasse Contracting<\/a> \u2013 Monday, allowing the damage to be thoroughly investigated as engineers and culvert suppliers tied to the project weigh in on what\u2019s next.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t have what the ultimate outcome will be in terms of schedule impacts. I will say that everything is fixable. It\u2019s just a matter of ordering parts and pieces and providing the contractor with the adequate engineering direction on how this needs to be resolved.\u201d<\/p>\n

Project pinned for March 2026 completion<\/div>\n

According to a background description of the construction<\/a> from the county, Bridge 3121 closed in March for a one-year projected replacement. A contract was awarded to Hasse to lead the endeavor at a price tag of $2,425,300.<\/p>\n

According to county documents<\/a>, Bridge 3121 closed in March for a one-year replacement. A contract was awarded to Hasse for $2,425,300.<\/p>\n

The bridge, built in the 1970s over Jones Arroyo, carries an average of 2,300 vehicles daily between Aztec and Flora Vista. Once replaced, the new bridge is expected to last 80 years.<\/p>\n

Originally, the road closure was expected to last four months, but a July 28 update<\/a> said construction faced delays, including late part deliveries.<\/p>\n

\"Map
Map showing the bridge\u2019s location. (Courtesy of San Juan County)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

Installation of the bridge\u2019s arch culvert and head and wing walls began in September, with backfilling in October.<\/p>\n

By early November, the county said, \u201cthere will be no further update until after Dec. 12 when weather will be the deciding factor in paving operations.\u201d<\/p>\n

That was before Porell got a call from the contractor about the structural failure of a wing wall attached to the culvert.<\/p>\n

Wall \u2018slumped,\u2019 but did not collapse<\/div>\n

Porell said the stop-work notice issued to Hasse Monday was \u201cnot intended to be punitive.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s more so we need to halt all activity, basically remove the contractor\u2019s authority to continue work while that\u2019s investigated by us as the owner, (and by) our engineering team, the culvert supplier.\u201d<\/p>\n

Porell said engineers and culvert suppliers were traveling from Texas, Albuquerque and Phoenix for a meeting planned later this week.<\/p>\n

Further describing the problem with photos, Porell said the wall \u201cslumped,\u201d but remained upright and did not collapse.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen a structure holding that much weight moves, it will cause some damage.\u201d<\/p>\n

As for considering a different contractor, Porell said projects like this typically allow space for fixing errors.<\/p>\n

\u201cAfter the investigation, is there a possibility of us acquiring a totally different contractor to finish the job?\u201d Commissioner Sam Gonzales asked.<\/p>\n

\u201cAt this point in time, they haven\u2019t violated the terms of that contract,\u201d said Porell. \u201cThey are required to deliver a product that meets the specifications of our agreement.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cUnfortunately, in my experience, there are issues on most construction contracts and a contractor needs to be afforded the ability to correct them.\u201d<\/p>\n

Whether caused by a product failure, contractor error or design flaw, Porell said he did not yet know.<\/p>\n

\u201cObviously, I think all of us want this project completed as expeditiously as possible,\u201d said Porell. \u201cBut at the end of the day, we want a structure that\u2019s going to be there a year from now \u2013 20 years from now.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

to Aztec Bridge over Jones Arroyo faces more uncertainty in schedule as public works director issues stop work order to contractor<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":15415,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[28,29],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-15414","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-headlines","tag-newsletter"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15414","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=15414"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15414\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":19645,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15414\/revisions\/19645"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/15415"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15414"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15414"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15414"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=15414"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}