South Academy Boulevard bridge repairs over Fountain Creek in El Paso County expected to end soon

EL PASO COUNTY, Colo. (KRDO) -- The project manager on a four-month project to repair bridge damage on a key transportation corridor said that work should be completed in a few weeks, and that'll be a huge relief to many drivers.

Brett Hartzell leads the effort to fix support piers on the bridge across Fountain Creek on South Academy Boulevard, near the southern border of Colorado Springs and El Paso County.

Repair work has continued since late November when crews noticed an unusual amount of movement on the westbound bridge; it was immediately closed for an inspection and alternating closures of both bridges -- as well as individual traffic lanes -- have continued.

As of Wednesday, the eastbound bridge remained closed with the westbound bridge carrying two lanes of vehicles traveling west, and one lane going east.

The closures and changing traffic patterns have increased congestion in an area that is already part of a widening project between Interstate 25 and Milton E. Proby Parkway, and is bordered bridge replacement projects on I-25 and Bradley Road.

Hartzell said that scouring -- a fairly common situation caused by erosion from strong creek or river flows -- caused significant damage to one support pier and minor damage to two others on the westbound bridge.

He explained how the repairs were made.

"So, what we did is we kind of built a concrete block around the piers to make sure that in the future there'd be no settlement, if there was any kind of additional scour that we didn't plan on, that concrete block would prevent the bridge from settling," Hartzell said.

The eastbound bridge is closed to allow crews to inspect those piers and do shoring-up work.

"We're also installing what's called Concrete Ajax," he said. "It's little concrete X's that lock together. It's basically like rip rap, just better. It performs the same function. That's just so they can pack tighter together and you can cable that. You can cable them together and wrap them around the piers."

Although bridges around the Fountain Creek bridges are being replaced, Hartzell said that replacement isn't necessary for the creek structures that were built in the early 1970s.

"Any time we do bridge repairs, we always look at a cost study to see whether it makes more sense to repair the repair the damage or repair the the aging or replace the structure," he said. "Obviously, replacing the structures is a lot more upfront cost, but trying to balance the funding, it just made more sense to do the repairs and buy more service life of the bridges."

Hartzell added that the cost of the repair work hasn't been determined.