Construction crews are still working away on the third phase of the the Shadow Mountain Village Improvement Project.

Moffat County Development Services Director Roy Tipton said the project is more or less on schedule and should be complete by Oct. 1.

“It’s going to be a push to get there,” he said.

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Starting at Ninth Street, workers have dug down Sequoia Avenue toward Moffat County Road 7 to replace all of the water and sewer lines and hook every house up to the new system. Maple Street is being excavated as well.

Phase one was disrupted by unforeseen circumstances in 2014, but lost time was recouped during phase two in 2015.

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The total cost of all three phases is estimated at around $8 million but should resolve issues with the outdated and insufficient water lines in the Shadow Mountain neighborhood for decades to come, according to county officials.

“I know it’s hard on everybody out there… but it won’t happen again for another 40 or 50 years,” said Tipton. “It’s a little bit of pain for a long-term gain.”

One Shadow Mountain resident raised concerns about protective curbs in front of electrical junction boxes after he lost 11 feet of his driveway to one.

Michael Noland said he doesn’t understand why a curb was installed while other locations are left exposed.

“If it’s a safety concern, it needs to be all the way around,” he said.

Tipton said in some of the cases where an electrical box is located between two driveways, there isn’t enough room to install a curb on the street and still leave a minimum 25 feet of access for the property owner.

“It’s a judgment call and it’s up to our field engineer how we locate those,” he said. “It’s about what makes logical sense. We try to do them with a curb but what people don’t get is you can’t always do that.”

There is no legal requirement to guard the boxes and although it is good practice, engineers have to make decisions on the ground, Tipton said.

“We do the best we can,” said Tipton. “The reality is nobody has any of there lot that isn’t accessible by what we gave them.”

Shadow Mountain was originally developed as housing for the workers building Craig Station in the 1970s. It was rezoned in 1985, allowing for purchase of property and permanent residence, which would lean to a strain on the neighborhood’s infrastructure.

In the November 2013 election, 76 percent of Shadow Mountain residents voted for the Shadow Mountain Village Local Improvement District and impose a tax upon themselves to help fund an effort to improve sewer and water lines.

Initially estimated at around $6.4 million, all three phases are expected to total just over $8 million.

The funding comes in the form of $3 million from Moffat County, $500,000 from the City of Craig, $1 million from the local improvement district and $3.67 million from the Department of Local Affairs.

When the bids for phase three came back a bit higher than expected, DOLA supplemented the county with an additional $327,794.

Contact Patrick Kelly at 970-875-1795 or Contact Patrick Kelly at 970-875-1795 or pkelly@CraigDailyPress.com or follow him on Twitter @M_PKelly.Contact Patrick Kelly at 970-875-1795 or pkelly@CraigDailyPress.com or follow him on Twitter @M_PKelly.