Summer is construction season in Fort Collins. Here's why.

Driving through Fort Collins in the summer often feels like a maze of detours.

From stormwater improvements closing the Mulberry Street and College Avenue intersection this month to repaving work on Kechter Road, it can feel like there are orange cones almost every direction you go.

Summer is road construction season in Fort Collins for a few reasons, city senior civil engineering manager Darren Moritz said. Summer construction limits the impacts to Colorado State University and Poudre School District, the weather is more reliable and it’s generally the right temperature for concrete work.

Any concrete work needs to be completed in the summer because of how pavement behaves at different temperatures, city spokesperson Brian Nunnery said.

There's also “a limited time period that we can typically work around CSU on our projects,” Moritz said.

That’s partially why roadwork closing portions of Mulberry Street and College Avenue is happening at the same time as repairs to Laurel Street. It’s important to have the construction near CSU done over the summer, even though they are close together, Moritz said.

Similarly, additional construction on Kechter Road was recently approved following a 10-day closure on an adjacent section of the road to consolidate impacts to the road and get improvements done prior to Poudre School District students returning to school next month.

All road construction isn’t just from the city, Moritz said. Power companies, utilities and others have road projects approved by the city that also have to get done during construction season. For example, the Fort Collins-Loveland Water District is doing pipeline work this month that will impact the Prospect Road and Overland Trail area.

The city hosts a meeting every year with those companies that often conduct roadwork to find out what projects they’ll be filing permits for to plan out the summer construction season, Moritz said.

“All of our projects are coordinated with the city’s traffic department, and if they know traffic will be impacted too greatly, they won’t approve work,” Moritz said.

A map on the city website called FCTrips shows all the current and upcoming road construction projects in Fort Collins — including those involving the city and outside agencies.

This article originally appeared on Fort Collins Coloradoan: Summer is construction season in Fort Collins. Here's why.