Updating first year of Interstate 25 project in central Colorado Springs

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. (KRDO) -- The current construction on I-25 between Fillmore Street and Garden of the Gods Road is just entering its second year and still has another year to go.

The first year may seem like an eternity to drivers who have coped with narrow lanes, lower speed limits and rough pavement since the project began last October.

Among the $62 million in objectives by the Colorado Department of Transportation (CDOT): Replacing two overpasses at Ellston Street; repairing the bridge deck at Garden of the Gods Road; making significant drainage improvements; repaving the 1.5-mile construction zone; and lengthening the acceleration and deceleration lanes between both interchanges.

Yun Han, a CDOT engineer, explained why drainage upgrades are necessary.

"Because we have so many watersheds toward the west that are actually coming down, he said. "In order to accommodate all the rain, rainstorm or events, we actually need to design such big culverts -- 48-inch to 54-inch pipes."

What many drivers wonder about, however, is if CDOT will do any paving to smooth the highway surface during construction -- similar to maintenance paving the agency did before the start of the just-completed project to replace aging asphalt with concrete on 7.5 miles of I-25 between Colorado Springs and Fountain.

"It doesn't make any sense to repave the highway there when it would only get torn up during construction," Han said. "But we will be filling the many potholes there. Many of them developed after the recent week of snow that we had. We'll try to do it every month, if not every other month."

Final paving, he added, won't occur until late next year or in 2026.

CDOT said that lengthening the acceleration and deceleration lanes will make merging on and off the freeway easier, and eliminate a bottleneck that often backs up traffic for miles.

Last week, the project reached a major milestone when southbound traffic shifted onto the new Ellston overpass, and demolition of the old bridge began; crews will begin building the northbound overpass next year.

The bridge demolition creates a lot of noise, but many neighbors along nearby Chestnut Street are used to big construction projects, having endured the building of a new bridge over North Douglas Creek in 2016.