Utility line installation temporarily closes lane of busy Austin Bluffs Parkway in Colorado Springs
COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. (KRDO) -- Drivers may be wondering why a barrier is keeping traffic out of the right lane of Austin Bluffs Parkway between Goldenrod Drive and the Union Boulevard exit.
The lane closed a month ago so that Colorado Springs Utilities (CSU) could start a $600,000 project to install natural gas lines under the lane.
Audrianna Medellin, a CSU design engineer, said that the lines are being moved underground from two nearby above-ground connections to increase safety and service reliability.
"We had to work with traffic control and did some permitting for this, especially because it's so busy," she explained. "We worked on having our design in the single lane, so that we weren't taking up both lanes, this lane in the middle lane and bringing it to one one lane. So, a lot of coordination."
Medellin said that the gas line project should be finished by the end of October.
To protect workers during the project, CSU opted against traditional concrete barriers and chose to use steel barriers described as being lighter, easier to install and just as durable as concrete.
"It's the first time they've been used in Colorado Springs," said Jeff Kretzer, a CSU construction supervisor. "They're easier to (assemble) and we have some blind curves down the bottom (of the street). It would be harder to make the radius turn with concrete barriers. And these steel barriers were rated for a 60-mile-an-hour impact. We felt safer for these to be down in that area."
No vehicles have hit the barriers so far, Kretzer said.
A 3.5-acre parcel at the corner of Austin Bluffs and Goldenrod is also where CSU is building a new substation that will better handle current and future power needs; it will be called the Central Bluffs Substation and replace three older facilities.
The City Council approved the project earlier this year; CSU acquired two homes and four office buildings that will be demolished to make way for the new substation.
