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Amenities taking form in Cimarron/I-25 work

      

In overnight work on the $113 million Cimarron/I-25 project, a crew with contractor Kraemer North America pours concrete for the deck on the last portion of the new interstate bridge over Cimarron. The full bridge is scheduled to open to traffic in late July.
Westside Pioneer photo
Three new driving experiences at or near the Cimarron/I-25 interchange project are becoming available for motorists this summer.
       One is the single-point urban interchange (SPUI) design for the on/off-ramps; the second is the quadrant/”shortcut” southeast of Cimarron (Highway 24) and Eighth Street; and the third is the last “half” of the new interstate bridge over Cimarron.
       I-25 motorists will also be slowed through October by crews upgrading the overpass above Colorado Avenue, a Colorado Department of Transporta-tion (CDOT) press release states.
       Meanwhile the overall schedule calls for completion by December. The contractor, Kraemer North America, started on the $113 million CDOT project in May 2015.
       Here are capsules on the three new “experiences”:
  • SPUI (opening around start of July) - With one less stoplight and “flatter” left left-turn paths, project engineers say this design moves traffic more efficiently than what was originally planned for Cimarron underneath the interstate.
           A similar SPUI design exists at the Garden of the Gods/I-25 interchange. A difference at Cimarron/I-25 is the three left-turn lanes for vehicles heading toward the mountains from the northbound off-ramp .
           The interchange's previous design - approved but unfunded as part of the 2005-2007 COSMIX I-25 widening project - had called for stoplights at the bottoms of the ramps, which would have meant two stoplights to get through instead of one.
  • Quadrant/shortcut (opening mid-July) - As detailed in the May/June Westside Pioneer, CDOT believes this 800-foot road segment will divert traffic from the busy intersection of Eighth and Cimarron.

    A graphic shows how traffic will move at the Cimarron/I-25 interchange in the single-point urban interchange (SPUI) configuration.
    Courtesy of Colorado Department of Transportation

           The shortcut will be governed by a stoplight at Cimarron and another where it lines up with the access to the Colorado Place shopping center.
  • Cimarron/I-25 bridge (opening late July). In an overnight activity in mid-June, Kraemer crews poured the concrete for the last 71-foot deck width on what will be a 151-foot wide interstate span above Cimarron.
           The bridge will handle three lanes of traffic each way, with a continuing ingress/egress lane on either side.
           The first 80-foot width was completed last September.
           The original bridge, built around 1960 for two lanes each way, was demolished last fall.
           The 80-foot span is carrying all the I-25 traffic while the 71-footer is being readied.

    Westside Pioneer article