 A breaker attachment on a 73,000-pound Hitachi track excavator pounds away at girders it had just knocked down during the demolition of the old Fillmore bridge during overnight work in April. In the background, other machinery can be seen at work. The angle is from the new south bridge. The new north bridge can be seen in the upper left part of the photo. For a few months, the old bridge was between them. Westside Pioneer photo
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“We're coming to the finish line,” said Ted Tjerandsen of Wilson and Company, a project consultant to the Colorado Department of Transporta-tion (CDOT).
However, there will still be one more significant traffic impact - a weekend closure of Fillmore Street above I-25, probably in early June, to allow the paving topcoat to be laid down and striped.
Most other work by the contractor, SEMA Construction, can proceed without lane closures. Continuing activities include construction of the DDI-related stoplights and concrete islands, as well as guard rails, aesthetics (paint and stone facing), and grass seeding, where necessary.
The last major events were the opening of the DDI in late March, followed by the demolition of the original Fillmore bridge. The 56-year-old span was used until the new north bridge was ready in late March.
Tjerandsen said he has already seen an improvement in traffic flow since the DDI opened. He thinks it will get even better when the final work is done and the temporary barriers, drums and cones are gone.
They tend to “scare people into going slower,” he said.
Construction started in February 2015. Improve-ments have also included a lengthening of the northbound on-ramp (from 400 to 1,300 feet) and southbound off-ramp (from 700 to 1,200 feet). The other Fillmore ramps had been redone as part of CDOT's COSMIX project on I-25 about 10 years ago.
Westside Pioneer article