Work starts on Holland Park noise wall

       Construction on a noise wall between Holland Park and I-25 was getting started this week as part of the interstate-widening project known as COSMIX.
       Following a long, dirt alley behind houses along Chestnut Street, the wall will be 2,820 feet long and 16 feet high, according to specifications in the Environmental Assessment (EA) that was done for the project last year by the Colorado Department of Transportation (CDOT).
       Shielded by the barrier will be 70 homes and businesses between Ellston Street and just north of Hoorne Avenue, the EA states.
       Work this week will consist mainly of ground preparation, with construction of the wall itself possibly beginning the following week, according to Bill Badger, a COSMIX spokesperson.
       The noise barrier installation accompanies the initial COSMIX efforts, which include a widening of the interstate to six lanes between Fillmore Street and Garden of the Gods Road.
       Also planned, starting in late August, will be the installation of an 860-foot-long, 8-foot-high noise barrier on the other side of the interstate, in front of the Holiday Village mobile home park, Badger said.
       The Holland Park wall will go in 18 feet east of the alley, he said.
       The goal is to reduce noise levels from what they would be, as a result of the widening, by an average of 6 decibels in the Holland Park area, according to the EA. Average reductions in Holiday Village will be 5 decibels, the EA states.
       The barrier installation work will involve “grading and filling of the slope to make sure the wall is an even and consistent height,” Badger said. “The construction of the wall will be the noisiest. Caissons will have to go in. Crews will be drilling for holes, then putting in the supports and sliding the panels in between.”
       Badger estimated that workers would do “about 15 caissons a day, about a day at a time in front of each house in Holland Park.”
       The work will go faster in front of Holiday Village because that wall is shorter, he said.

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