Turn lanes open up at Woodmen and Union in Colorado Springs

Traffic is moving through the intersection of Woodmen Road and Union Boulevard. It’s an area that has been under construction since early this summer. Sunday was the first day the new alignment was open for people to drive through and police and traffic engineers were in place to make sure the transition went smoothly.

The biggest change for drivers is if you want to go from from Woodmen onto Union, you have to decide to turn a quarter mile away from the original intersection. “This is a new traffic pattern and this is a new type of intersection that hasn’t been used in Colorado Springs or really anywhere locally in Southern Colorado. So I expect a little bit of confusion,” said K athleen Krager, the division manager for traffic engineering in Colorado Springs. Confusion that is coming in the form of frustration from drivers. Many people on the KRDO Facebook page saying they don’t believe this new alignment will work out. But Krager said the same concern came when the Fillmore Street and Interstate 25 realignment happened. “After a couple weeks it settled down and people started writing in and calling into the city and complimenting us that it really does work a lot better,” Krager said. She said while you are getting used to the new pattern, if you are driving through the intersection and miss the turn lane, do not try to turn at union. “I think once people get used to it, it’s a lot of increased capacity for the intersection,” Krager said. The construction in the area is not complete yet, but they hope to finish up in the next month depending on the weather.