RTA’s Bijou-area work closest to Westside in ‘05

       In the 2005 preliminary budget for the Pikes Peak Rural Transportation Authority (RTA), only one project with immediate Westside impact is scheduled to get underway this year. This is a $100,000 portion of the project titled “I-25 Interchange Companion Projects” (total estimate $10.3 million), including planned road upgrades and realignments near the Bijou Street/I-25 interchange that a contractor for the Colorado Department of Transportation (CDOT) is expected to start building in 2006.
       Engineers and planners from the government entities in the RTA drafted the '05 budget - approved in final form by the RTA board Jan. 12 - which includes a start-date chronology for different RTA projects through 2009.
       The RTA, approved in the November election, included seven Westside projects - four of them on the top-priority “A” list - to be built with the RTA's 1-cent sales tax through 2014. Of these Westside projects, the earliest scheduled year is 2007. According to the list, that year would see the left-turn lane at the 30th Street and Navigators entrance, the Fillmore Street widening between I-25, and an upgraded intersection at Garden of the Gods Road and Chestnut Street.
       The fourth Westside “A” list item - the new bridge at 25th Street over Fountain Creek - will be scheduled sometime after 2009, based on the recommendations.
       Another “A” list item of significance to the Westside is the replacement for the Cimarron Street bridge over Conejos Street. The current bridge had to be shored up over the past three years. The repairs will last 10 years, City Engineering has stated. A new bridge is not scheduled before 2009.
       No dates have been set for any of the “B” or “C” priority projects.

Westside Pioneer article