Paving, bridge work completed on Woodmen Road in Colorado Springs; officials to monitor winter impact

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. (KRDO) — Mild fall weather allowed crews to stay on schedule in repaving a 1.5-mile stretch of Woodmen Road, and now officials will watch how winter weather may affect a different paving material used in the project.

Stone mason asphalt (SMA) is the product used in resurfacing the busy road, from just east of the Academy Boulevard interchange to west of Interstate 25 at the Woodmen/Rockrimmon Boulevard interchange.

Paving started in late September and was completed last weekend.

Officials said that they were impressed with how SMA held up to heavy traffic in the Denver area and wanted to try it on Woodmen, which averages 60,000 vehicles daily.

SMA is thicker than traditional asphalt and harder to work with, but officials said that they're happy with how it has performed so far.

"If you happen to be stopped at a street and you look down, it looks pretty rough," said Richard Mulledy, the city's public works director. "And that's because of that structural stability. It's not as noisy as you would expect with tire noise. We've been really, really happy with that because we were really careful about noise conditions through neighborhoods."

Although SMA costs up to $53 per ton more than traditional asphalt, he said that the city will consider using it on selected future projects if it saves on maintenance costs.

"We'll see how it does this winter," Mulledy said. "We're repaving six miles of Circle Drive next year. SMA could be a good candidate for that."

Earlier this year, crews stripped off the previous asphalt that was mixed with rubber from old tires, which didn't hold up well in Colorado's high-altitude climate.

However, the city decided not to apply SMA to the Woodmen bridge over Academy.

"We milled that off, down to the original deck -- which is concrete -- and that's actually the finished condition," he explained. "Now, when you drive and look at it, it looks a little spotty, discolored, unfinished. The sun will bleach that out. Over time, it will look better."

In a separate but related project, crews repaired the bridge, which was built nearly 15 years ago, by replacing joints and broken concrete, and using improved materials to upgrade the bridge's weathering surface — officials said it had deteriorated faster than expected.

In another related project earlier in the year, crews rebuilt the center median on westbound Woodmen, just east of I-25, to lengthen the left turn lanes onto the freeway and reduce traffic congestion.