Concerning the old concrete pavers removed from Old Town Square (OTS). It was brought to the DDA’s attention that pavers removed from the Old Town Square Renovation Project are being advertised for sale on Craigslist by a third party. Neither the City or the DDA is selling pavers on Craigslist.

The terms of the DDA’s construction contract designates Mortenson Construction as responsible for removal of the old pavers from OTS. The DDA requested of Mortenson that they repurpose and recycle as many used and undamaged pavers as possible to avoid this material becoming waste that enters the landfill. This effort has been facilitated in numerous ways that respect the large scale of such an undertaking and the requirements for managing job site site safety and liabilities. 

It was estimated that approximately 49,000 square feet of old pavers would be removed from the project in OTS. Of this quantity, it was estimated that approximately 20% of the pavers were either previously damaged or would be damaged during their removal and not in a condition to be repurposed.

At a considerable cost-savings for the DDA project, which also facilitated our request of Mortenson, they agreed to palletize and sell a large quantity of pavers to fund their expenses associated with the laborious task of paver removal and palletizing. Several requests for pavers were received early on in the project from the City of Fort Collins Parks Department and City Engineering Department for use in new municipal and future sidewalk maintenance projects (5000 s.f.). Additional requests of 2,500 s.f. from Progressive Old Town Square, LLC (owner of the buildings adjacent to OTS) and Brinkman Partners (100 s.f. for Linden Street sidewalk replacement) also were received. Costs for paver material handling and/or delivery were reimbursed back to the DDA’s project by the parties listed above.

Additionally, Mortenson coordinated with The Hillen Corporation of Commerce City, CO for the purchase of approximately 12,000 square feet of palletized pavers. A second arrangement for repurposing old pavers was coordinated with Toby Luttropp, owner of The Good Son, LLC, a Northern Colorado residential sub-contractor, to load and haul mixed piles of materials from the construction site in exchange for the reusable pavers contained in the loads. The loads obtained by Mr. Luttropp contained a mix of whole and broken pavers and soil that required considerable manual sorting. Mr. Luttropp’s company is the party advertising the sale of reclaimed pavers on Craigslist. We also expect the pavers recycled through Hillen Corporation will be sold to private parties for reuse in commercial construction projects in the region.

I hope this explains the efforts of the DDA to ensure that as much of the reusable material from the construction project is diverted from the landfill.