A construction contract has been approved for the widening of Interstate 25 from Woodmen Road to Monument and work is expected to begin around the first of March.
Kiewit Western Co. got the contract for $51.7 million, largely because it said it could finish the job before the end of 2013.
“We were pretty impressed when we read that in the proposal,” said Doug Lollar, Colorado Department of Transportation’s north program engineer. “It’s certainly doable.”
Kiewit will likely add a layer of asphalt to the freeway in the summer of 2014, said CDOT project manager Dan Hunt. If the temperature is below 50 degrees, asphalt can’t be put down, he said.
Wayne Pittman is the CDOT project engineer and will oversee the daily work while other CDOT staffers will do testing and inspection work, Hunt said.
Two lanes of traffic must remain open in each direction, although slower speeds may be required in work zones. Work barriers are expected to separate motorists from workers.
Hunt said the project will be broken into five segments. He said public meetings will be conducted to inform citizens of work progress and details.
“The goal will be to keep traffic moving and minimize inconvenience to drivers,” Lollar said previously. “Ramps may be closed on an intermittent basis, but we wouldn’t allow any extended closure of any ramps.”
Kiewit has yet to design the project and can’t begin construction until CDOT approves the design. Hunt said that could be accomplished by the end of February.
When the project is completed, I-25 will be six lanes from the southern side of Colorado Springs to the northern boundary of El Paso County.
“I-25 carries 25 percent of our regional traffic in a day,” Craig Casper, transportation director for Pikes Peak Area Council of Governments, said on Oct. 29. ”That includes nearly all of our freight. It’s our most congested road in severity, duration and hours of travel lost. It’s the linchpin of our travel system.”
Casper said about 110,000 drivers log about 6 million miles a day on I-25 in the county.
“This is a huge project,” said county commissioner Sallie Clark. “It’s a great step forward for this community to finish that leg north.”
The project is fully funded and will cost about $66.9 million, Hunt said. More than $10 million will come from federal funds that are to be used for PPACG projects.
—
Contact Bob Stephens: 636-0276 Twitter @bobgstephens
Facebook Gazette Bob Stephens