The Love’s Travel Stop being installed south of Cortez has resumed construction after a new construction company got involved earlier this year.
The travel stop is being built on the site of the M&M truck stop at the corner of County Road G and U.S. Highway 160-491, which stood vacant for many years before it was demolished in 2021. The goal is to complete the project by the end of this year, said project manager Grant Garber.
Garber works for Venture Construction Co., based in Kansas. In an email, he explained that he joined the project in March of this year. He stated that crews are working on “earthwork, foundations and underground utilities.”
Garber reported that the development plan includes a “Love’s travel stop fuel station with standard amenities.”
The Journal reached out to Love’s to clarify what services are to be offered. Their reply stated that 24-hour services will be provided, and a Subway restaurant is being put in. They also stated that the stop will not offer tire shop services.
A previous Journal article reported that the development plan in 2020 also included a total of nine fuel islands, a truck scale, dog park, RV dump, and water and propane filling stations. Love’s did not have information about these additional amenities at this time.
Garber described some of the challenges that crews have faced with this project. While his company was not involved at the time, he said that groundwater levels have complicated the installation of deep utilities and fuel pumps.
The Colorado Division of Oil and Public Safety got involved with the land redevelopment in 2020 to clean up fuel-contaminated soils from a spill that happened in the 1990s, according to the previous Journal article.
Garber said that the next phase of construction will “continue with construction of pavements and begin vertically with the building components.”
Love’s is based in Oklahoma City and has more than 600 locations in 42 states, according to its website.
