$65 Million In Stimulus Funds Arriving For Southern Colorado
By Stephanie Wurtzs.wurtz@krdo.com
COLORADO SPRINGS – Some troublesome and dangerous areas on Colorado roads are slated for improvements with millions of dollars ifrom the Federal Economic Stimulus Plan arriving in southern Colorado.
$35 million from the stimulus package will fund improvements at one of the city’s busiest intersections: Woodmen and Academy. It’s one of four projects in our region receiving the funds.
“We could use $400 or 500 million,” says Craig Casper, a traffic engineer with the Pikes Peak Area Council of Governments, “we could spend ten times what they’re giving us.”
What southern Colorado got was $65 million from the stimulus bill. $41 million are staying in the Pikes Peak Region, paying for two projects: improvement to Woodmen Road, east of I-25 and constructing an interchange at Woodmen and Academy, as well as rebuilding a structurally deficient bridge on Highway 24 East, near Falcon.
“We’ve gotten to the point where intersections are saturated,” Casper says of the need for the improvements at Woodmen and Academy, “it’s a major east-west route in an area that’s east-west challenged.”
“Every one of these projects will affect safety as well as improving mobility,” says Tim Harris, the CDOT director for the South-Southeast Region.
Other projects in the region involve much-needed reconstruction on a section of I-25 through Trinidad and adding pedestrian trails for the area. At the top of CDOT’s Region Two list is rebuilding a primary Ports to Plains route on US 287 south of Springfield.
“We’ve been rebuilding that for the last ten years or so,” Harris says of the project, “so this will be the last piece in our region.” No projects in the Pueblo area made the list, but the stimulus money frees up funds for other improvements there, including a bridge over the Saint Charles River.
“It’s like we’re getting two bridge projects for the price of one,” says Harris. Get ready: the cone zones for the stimulus projects begin this summer. CDOT and the Pikes Peak Area Council of Governments say the road needs in Colorado are dire.
Some of the freed-up funds will go to designs and plans for high-priority projects. The agencies say they are hoping other states won’t be able to use all their stimulus money within the next six months, so they want to have Colorado projects ready to go.
