No such thing as a free dog (or bridge)

Corner of Washington Street Bridge over HW58

A reader of my newsletter has been accurately pointing out that the bridge over HW58 is looking a bit shabby. The paint is peeling. Let me tell you a bit about this particular bridge.

CDOT owns and maintains the bridge for cars. But Golden maintains the pedestrian crossings. Simple then, just tell CDOT to get their act together, paint our bit, easy peasy! Not so much…

Here is some more back story. The bridge was not painted to begin with! It was powder coated. That is an electrostatic process that adheres the paint to the metal and is done in a factory/spray booth “off site”. But after it is coated it is baked, and the particles melt to the surface, conforming to the surface. So problem number one, is that this is now “on site” and replacing powder coat in the field to include the baking process can not be done. One can do electrostatic painting, but that is a narrow skill. Secondly as some of it has failed (no, I don’t know the warranty situation), it needs to be sandblasted down to bare metal to make good contact. That is true of either powder coat or paint. So if we were to truly powder coat it, we would need to disassemble it into small enough pieces to fit in an oven. Even if you ground it down or sanded it, coated it with primer, and painted it, you still end up with debris created in the field. That leads to another issue. You are doing this cleaning over an active highway. For the safety of workers above and drivers below you have to do lane closures of HW58 to allow that work to take place. That requires interagency cooperation which is not so easy given the “summer” construction season and the demands on CDOT and their subcontractors.

Then, if you find one of these niche “on site” electrostatic paint contractors you have to fit into their schedule because they are in high demand.

Frankly, when I heard this story I was just “pissed” because what should have happened, is that we should have gone with the more recent technique of putting in a bridge that reaches a uniform rust color and are literally coated with a very, very thin coating of rust that acts as a barrier to further moisture. The pedestrian bridge from 8th avenue over Church ditch and then HW58; the new bridge over Kinney Run by Coors; the bridge over 6th avenue by the RTD station. All of these use the smart no-paint, no-powder-coat option for reduced maintenance. So I was simply annoyed that we didn’t have the foresight to do that for this bridge. And another reasonable complaint is how we let it go this far. Could we have made a warranty call about this?

Instead we have a bridge with pretty lights that have failed, powder coat that has failed, and a partner in CDOT who is very constrained for maintenance too. We have investigated the bridge to the degree necessary to ensure it is safe, but it is still shabby.

So, we are working to find one of those niche contractors who can do on-site prep work, we are working to coordinate with CDOT to do the required lane closures. But due to the complexity, and at this time, no known cost, it is not something I can further comment on, including a target date, as there are just too many unknowns.

Speaking of free dogs…When we got our dog from Foothills animal shelter 8 years ago, and did pay for her shots and stuff, we of course knew we’d have to pay for dog food and vet care. So, like a normal bridge we knew she would require some maintenance. What we did not know was that she would have particularly bad teeth and cost us thousands of dollars for extractions, which have to be done under anesthesia. That’s sort of like finding our powder coat failed when the expectation was that it would last much longer. I have powder coated some work I welded, and after 8 years it looks about brand new. And with the exception of her teeth, our dog is quite healthy. See the link? :-) She’s not free and had hidden flaws and neither is a bridge free, and it can have hidden flaws. I wish we she had better teeth, and I wish our bridge was different. But life sometimes stops you short of lemonaide, it’s just lemons.