CDOT softens pesky pavement bumps at Interstate 25, Cimarron Street (US 24) interchange in Colorado Springs
COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. (KRDO) -- You may have noticed that driving on Cimarron Street at the I-25 interchange has recently become smoother.
It's because crews with the Colorado Department of Transportation (CDOT) lowered the bumps that crossed Cimarron on both sides of the I-25 overpass.
The bumps were jarring and irritating to drivers, passengers and vehicles.
As previously reported by KRDO13's The Road Warrior, such bumps commonly form on newer highway segments where the weight of constant traffic on softer asphalt presses against harder concrete.
It's likely that crews used a machine to grind the bumps closer to pavement level, and drivers are hoping to see other highway bumps repaired soon.
"The most efficient process we have is to use a mill, and mill the asphalt, and make sure we'd have a smooth transition there," Randy Johnson a CDOT engineer, explained. "If there's cases where we feel like it's more it is required, we will get in there, we'll assess if we have to remove a panel or if we have to remove some asphalt."
A similar bump developed this summer under the pedestrian bridge on southbound I-25 near the Bijou Street exit; crews temporarily repaired it with asphalt.
As reported last month by The Road Warrior, CDOT plans to begin a new response that would hire an on-call concrete contractor specifically to repair bumps, potholes and other concrete pavement damage.
Earlier this summer, CDOT revealed that unlike asphalt repairs, which fall under the agency's maintenance responsibilities, contractors must design concrete repairs, like highway construction projects.
"I don't anticipate it to be an overnight process," Johnson said. "However, I do anticipate it to be much, much faster."
Examples of long-needed concrete repairs happened this summer, when crews fixed sunken concrete panels on southbound I-25 south of the Bijou Street by injecting expanding foam under them, and by replacing or repairing dozens of cracked and broken panels on Powers Boulevard (Highway 21) near the new Airport Road interchange.
Ironically, a damaged segment of the center median on the west side of the I-25/Cimarron interchange, which The Road Warrior first reported on in 2024, has yet to be repaired.
However, a CDOT spokesperson said that such repairs are a lower priority and are addressed "as time and resources allow."
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