Construction begins with SDS funds

Road construction in Pueblo West has started to make a main street safer, and the money is coming from the long-debated Southern Delivery System agreement between Colorado Springs and Pueblo County.

The project will come with several safety upgrades.

“Our Pueblo County road and bridge crews started work on widening Purcell Boulevard between North Platteville Boulevard and Fairbanks Drive,” said Paris Carmichael, the Pueblo County community information manager.

The road is being widened to hopefully prevent accidents.

“Adding these additional lanes and widening the shoulders really will help prevent rear end accidents as well as prevent head on collisions,” Carmichael said.

The construction is also creating a safer route for trucks to work on the SDS pipeline.

“When the SDS pipeline was being built the trucks, construction vehicles were using North Purcell Boulevard,” Carmichael said.

This is one of the first projects using the SDS money.

“This projects worth between $4-5 million,” said Pueblo County Commissioner Buffie McFadyen.

McFadyen says she is glad to see the work beginning on the projects they worked so hard to negotiate.

“It’s important that we negotiated the funds with Colorado Springs and we use the funds for what we said we needed them,” McFadyen said.

She’s excited to know these improvements will continue for the county for years to come.

“We’ll be watching over the next few years, Pueblo County to insure that the projects are working,” McFadyen said.

There are 71 projects total, with 59 of them benefiting Pueblo County.