Replacement of I-25/Bijou bridge to start in summer 2006
Construction on the I-25 widening project will begin in late June, with work on the Bijou Street bridge occurring between
summer 2006 and fall 2007, according to Joe Schroeder, project manager for I-25 contractor, Rockrimmon Constructors. He
also said, in a press release from the Colorado Department of Transportation (CDOT) this week, that the company has
“committed to completing the project a year ahead of CDOT's original schedule, so that all work will be done by the end of
2007.”
The initial work will include widening from Garden of the Gods Road to Fillmore Street, expected to last until the end of this year. The $150-million project will include the replacement of the Bijou Street and North Nevada Avenue/ Rockrimmon Boulevard interchanges and completion of the 12-mile interstate widening from South Circle Drive to North Academy Boulevard. At Bijou, the plan is to close the bridge entirely during part of the work so the old span can be more speedily removed and a new once built in its place. Anticipated closure dates are from Jan. 2, 2007, to October of that year, according to what Rockrimmon Constructors calls “general time frames” for the project. According to these time frames, starting this fall and continuing through the winter of 2007 will be construction on the Nevada Avenue and Rockrimmon Boulevard ramps. Also in that area at that time will be work on a new southbound frontage road and the Corporate Drive extension, followed by development of the new Nevada/ Rockrimmon interchange. From spring to fall 2006, widening work will occur between Woodmen Road and North Academy Boulevard. Preparatory work this spring will include staking by survey crews for design work and setting up staging areas along the corridor for equipment and materials. Additional pre-construction work will get underway later in the spring, involving additional surveying, installing erosion control measures and taking preventive steps to discourage nesting by migratory birds in the construction zone, the CDOT release states. The state has nicknamed the widening project COSMIX (a sem-acronym for “Colorado Springs Metro Interstate Expansion”). For more details, go to the project's website at www.COSMIXproject.com. Westside Pioneer article |