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Shifting ground forces Grand County to move landfill building

Tonya Bina
Sky-Hi Daily News
Grand County, Colorado
Byron Hetzler/Sky-Hi Daily News
Sky-Hi Daily News | Sky-Hi Daily News

The concrete floor of a 2-year-old metal shop building at the Granby Landfill is growing fault lines large enough to get a foot caught in them.

From slow-moving terrain near the base of the landfill site, the foundation is shifting, the west side bowing and growing cracks in the floor and on walls.

For this reason, the county recently sought bids to have the 6,400 square-foot building disassembled and re-erected at a new location.



Road and Bridge Superintendent Ken Haynes predicts the move will happen this spring.

On Tuesday, commissioners approved moving the maintenance building to the county’s 94 acres of Williams Fork Reservoir property that is earmarked for a future Grand County gravel pit.



At the Granby Landfill site, where $4 million was spent two years ago to stop a slope from sloughing downhill, ground is still moving below the landfill. At the most critical slope near Coyote Creek, the ground has moved 2.5 feet since 2007, according to Haynes.

Reacting to the movement, the building foundation is pulling away from the inside floor. In certain places it has moved nearly a foot since the county began keeping tabs in late 2007.

The building is mostly used to store and maintain large equipment such as a bulldozer and a hydroseeder.

So far it has been safe to occupy the building, confirmed by a structural engineer and the Grand County building official, Haynes said, but time is of the essence to get the building on a different piece of property.

“We want to get it down before something does happen,” he said.

Haynes guessed that it could take about two months to take the building down, transport it and have it re-erected.

– Tonya Bina can be reached at 887-3334 ext. 19603 or e-mail tbina@skyhidailynews.com.


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