Recent cold weather will likely force crews to wait until spring to pave a reconstructed portion of the upper Southfork Road.

A roughly 15-mile stretch of the Road 6WX is being upgraded. About half is being rehabilitated and resurfaced but will remain as gravel, while the other half is being converted from gravel to pavement.

Contractor Mountain Construction had planned to lay down pavement and effectively finish the job by mid-November. But the cold weather has disrupted those plans.

To pave, you need temperatures to be at least 40 degrees and rising — and then stay that way for awhile.

In the case of Mountain Construction and the South Fork project, “a freeze-thaw cycle’s been killing them,” said Park County Project Manager Ben McDonald.

When the company tried to start paving a few weeks ago, many spots failed preliminary testing, McDonald said. “We’re getting soft spots and cracking in the surface and they’re finding things.”

For that reason, McDonald said it should be in everyone’s best interest to push the work back until the spring.

Mountain Construction will maintain the portion of the road that has yet to be paved through the winter months — including handling snow removal, said Park County Engineer Brian Edwards.

Edwards also praised the contractor’s work on the project.

“With a tough market right now for … labor, getting people, keeping people, and the tough spring we had with the slow start and then the fall with the weather, they’ve really worked hard at it,” Edwards said of Mountain Construction.

“We’ve been really, really impressed with our team,” he said, also complimenting the “fantastic” assistance from the Federal Highway Administration.

The federal government is footing the bulk of the bill for the roughly $14.4 million South Fork project, with the county chipping in $2.36 million.

Park County Commission Chairman Jake Fulkerson also heralded Edwards and the public works staff for their efforts “holding that thing together.”