CDOT invites public to two open houses for pair of road projects in El Paso County

El PASO COUNTY, Colo. (KRDO) -- The Colorado Department of Transportation (CDOT) invites citizens to an open house Wednesday evening, April 3, to share details of a proposed widening of US 24 in the Falcon area.

The project would extend the highways four-lane configuration 2.5 miles, from where it currently ends at Garrett Road, to Woodmen Road.

Desired improvements include increasing safety and operational performance, reducing traffic congestion in the area; building a widened center median; and updating intersections to accommodate the widened highway.

The project also would close some connecting roads and replace them with two new roads.

"Limiting some access points onto US 24 because it will be especially unsafe with the speeds that people drive," said CDOT spokesperson Amber Shipley. "We want to push people down to primary intersections."

Citizen comment will be considered in the final design; the project is scheduled to start next year and last between 18 and 24 months.

Guests can attend the open house between 5:00 and 6:30 p.m. Wednesday at the Falcon Elementary School of Technology, 12050 Falcon Highway, in Peyton.

For more information about the project, click here.

On Tuesday evening, CDOT held another open house; this one for the proposal to upgrade the intersection of Highway 83 and Stagecoach Road in the Black Forest area.

Because of fast traffic on the highway and vehicles turning on and off Stagecoach, the intersection has been the site of several crashes -- including one that killed two people in 2020.

Shipley said that CDOT engineers have designed four different versions of the intersection upgrade, and will use public feedback in making a final decision; work isn't expected to start until next year.

For more details on that project, visit: https://www.codot.gov/projects/us24corridorelpaso.