Various pieces of information have been revealed at different meetings lately about the upcoming $150 million I-25 project
(known as “COSMIX”), which will widen I-25 and build new interchanges at Bijou Street and North Nevada Avenue/
Rockrimmon Boulevard.
- COSMIX groundbreaking is scheduled in late June. The project will start with the widening of I-25 to three lanes each way
(plus room for a future high-occupancy vehicle lane) between Fillmore Street and Garden of the Gods Road.
- The Bijou bridge is scheduled to be closed for most of 2007, and the Nevada/Rockrimmon bridges will be closed at times,
but neither can be closed at the same time.
- No I-25 traffic lanes will be closed between 6 a.m. and 6 p.m. CDOT engineer James Flohr recalled a previous time when
“we tried to close one lane during the daytime. Within minutes, it was backed up for miles.”
- A shuttle will be provided to take pedestrians - who would otherwise cross at Bijou Street - from one side of I-25 to the
other while the bridge is closed.
- Alternate routes to downtown for southbound traffic getting off at Bijou Avenue when the bridge is closed have not yet
been determined, but the optimum route is likely to use portions of Spruce and Walnut streets to Colorado Avenue.
- A “courtesy patrol” will be provided to tow away vehicles that break down on the interstate during construction in places
where there is no shoulder to pull over.
- The famous curve between the Cimarron Street and Bijou interchanges can only be partially straightened. Engineers were
constrained by Monument Creek on the east and the social services building on the west side of the curve. The cost for the
building would have been $30 million, which CDOT decided was better spent on construction work.
- Later widening in the COSMIX project (by the end of 2007) will increase traffic to three lanes each way all the way to
North Academy Boulevard.
- Traffic on I-25 is busiest at Bijou, with 115,000 vehicles a day. When I-25 opened in 1960, there were about 8,500 a
day.
For more information on COSMIX, call 520-5800 or go to cosmixproject.com
Westside Pioneer article
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