{"id":44978,"date":"2021-08-27T02:56:00","date_gmt":"2021-08-27T08:56:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/construction-stopped-on-camino-del-rio-because-of-covid-19-scare\/"},"modified":"2026-03-31T03:22:41","modified_gmt":"2026-03-31T09:22:41","slug":"construction-stopped-on-camino-del-rio-because-of-covid-19-scare","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/construction-stopped-on-camino-del-rio-because-of-covid-19-scare\/","title":{"rendered":"Construction stopped on Camino del Rio because of COVID-19 scare"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\"Construction
Construction work on Camino del Rio came to a stop this week after a contract crew reported exposures to COVID-19. (Jerry McBride\/Durango Herald)<\/span>cca<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

Construction came to a halt this week on Camino del Rio in Durango in accordance with COVID-19 safety protocols.<\/p>\n

The Colorado Department of Transportation said a contractor had two or more employees who reported positive cases of COVID-19 for themselves or exposure to positive cases of the coronavirus.<\/p>\n

\u201cBasically, they let us know that they were needing to shut down the project for two weeks,\u201d said CDOT spokeswoman Lisa Schwantes.<\/p>\n

The $5 million project<\/a> includes intermittent center-lane medians from Eighth Street to 14th Street, upgrades to the traffic signal at Ninth Street and Camino del Rio and improving the HAWK crosswalk at 12th Street and Camino.<\/p>\n

Work on the Camino del Rio project is expected to resume Sept. 7.<\/p>\n

With the delta variant ramping up in La Plata County, San Juan Basin Public Health continues to urge residents to get vaccinated, and advises everyone to wear a mask, whether they\u2019re vaccinated or not.<\/p>\n

\u201cFirst off, we all thank the essential road crews for their work,\u201d said SJBPH spokesman Chandler Griffin. \u201cWe would encourage construction workers to take the same precautions that we include in our advisory to the general public. The most important thing is to be fully vaccinated. The vaccine is highly safe, and effective, especially at preventing hospitalization.\u201d<\/p>\n

The workers were likely following CDOT\u2019s coronavirus safety precautions, but construction work can sometimes cause people doing the work to be in close quarters, Griffin said.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf they\u2019re in really close quarters, we just ask that they make sure to mask up, especially if they go into an indoor space,\u201d he said. \u201cBoth of our counties are currently defined as high-risk for transmission by the Centers for Disease Control. We\u2019re currently in the midst of a delta variant wave locally, as we are statewide, and across the country.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Construction
Construction work on Camino de Rio came to a stop this week after a contract crew reported exposures to COVID-19. (Jerry McBride\/Durango Herald)<\/span>cca<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

CDOT is not concerned with the project\u2019s time frame, and believes that even with this setback, it should be finished on time.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe always allow for emergency suspensions of the project. Whether it\u2019s for weather, or in this case a medical need, or for a number of other reasons,\u201d Schwantes said. \u201cThe contractor is currently working on a new schedule for us. They\u2019re confident and we\u2019re confident that they can complete the work on time.\u201d<\/p>\n

During the project\u2019s suspension, traffic control personnel will perform daily inspections to ensure the devices within the project limits remain in place.<\/p>\n

njohnson@durangoherald.com<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

resume in two weeks<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":44979,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[28,1686,1685],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-44978","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-headlines","tag-heavy-construction","tag-road-work-and-conditions"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44978","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=44978"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44978\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":86296,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44978\/revisions\/86296"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/44979"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=44978"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=44978"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=44978"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=44978"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}