Patrick from Thornton writes, “What’s driving you crazy? Last year 96th Ave in Commerce City was closed down at the Union Pacific Railroad crossing for much needed repairs as it was car-damaging rough. The next day I was excited to drive over the newly repaired crossing. However, it was just as rough and car-damaging as it was before. Who is responsible for quality control of the work that is done at taxpayer expense on roads in Commerce City?”
When I went out there many months after those repairs, it was easy to see how rough the pavement still is on 96th on either side of the repaired tracks. There are two parts of this puzzle, the tracks and immediate area and the roadway leading up to the tracks. The track repair you mentioned Patrick was conducted by Union Pacific Railroad in November 2025, but there was not any road repair leading up to the tracks done at that time. All road repair outside of that immediate area of the tracks would need to be done by Commerce City.
One of the problems here is the extreme amount of large truck traffic and it is made more complicated because of so many fuel tankers rolling through here. The fuel tanker drivers are required to come to a complete stop and look for trains before continuing on and crossing the tracks. That stopping action contributes to asphalt structural fatigue and distortion. When heavy trucks brake hard, especially during hot weather we had this past summer, the forward momentum pushes and shoves the asphalt creating ripples or waves…