Rockrimmon Boulevard bridge to close Friday evening
Drivers in northwest Colorado Springs should prepare for nearly two weeks of detours around a bridge replacement project.
Beginning at 6 p.m. Friday, the bridge on West Rockrimmon Boulevard between Allegheny and Grey Eagle drives will close until Aug. 11.
Workers will replace the existing bridge with a structurally stronger version that will have a larger culvert underneath to handle heavy flows from North Rockrimmon Creek.
The bridge will also be wider to handle heavier traffic loads and provide better pedestrian access.
Ryan Phipps, a city public works engineer, said neighbors should prepare for noise overnight Friday as workers demolish the existing bridge, but that most work will happen during the day.
“It’s (a) very ambitious (schedule),” Phipps said. “It’s unusual that we’d complete a project this quickly. But based on Rockrimmon being such a heavily traveled road, so close to emergency services and schools, we really wanted to get in and out as quickly as possible, especially before school resumes next month.”
Ben Kawakami, who lives around the corner from the bridge, said the project caught him by surprise.
“I didn’t realize it was going to be closed so long,” he said. “I hear the detour is a mile-and-a-half long. That’s really going to be an inconvenience for us here.”
Phipps advises drivers to use Delmonico Drive and South Rockrimmon Boulevard as a detour.
Preliminary work to relocate utility lines on the bridge was completed earlier this year. Temporary lane closures will continue after the new bridge opens to allow for finishing work.
The city is working on five other bridge projects and is scheduled to start two more later this year.
Two of the current projects, to build new bridges on Chestnut Street and Evans Avenue, are scheduled for completion in November.
Two maintenance projects over Sand Creek, along Academy Boulevard and Barnes Road, should be finished by the end of summer, as is the repair of support pillars under the Circle Drive bridge over Fountain Creek.
Workers recently finished a project on the Woodmen Road bridge across Cottonwood Creek. That project, and several others, coincide with an expanded street-paving project that began this year.
Two more bridge projects, on Verde Drive and 26th Street, will begin later this year.
Money for the projects comes from the city’s budget, the Pikes Peak Rural Transportation Authority and federal grants.
