Section of Curtis Road in eastern El Paso County to close until mid-July for bridge project

EL PASO COUNTY, Colo. (KRDO) -- People will have to cope with an eight-mile detour for the next several weeks because of upgrades to the Curtis Road bridge over Black Squirrel Creek.

The project began last week and is expected to continue for another five weeks; crews are replacing the bridge deck and will repave it at the end of the schedule.

Officials said that Jones Road to the north, Slocum Road to the east and Highway 94 to the south, as the primary detour.

"It'll take about ten minutes to navigate the detour," said Dan Gerhard, a public works engineer for the county.

He added that bridge decks are normally replaced every 25 years; the Curtis Road bridge -- built in 1997 -- is now 27 years old.

"It's not routine maintenance but it prevents damage to the rest of the bridge structure," Gerhard explained. "If the rest of it gets damaged, you're talking about possibly replacing the bridge and it becomes more expensive."

He said that the county uses a variety of treatments to maintain its many aging bridges, and replaces them as needed.

"We recently finished a new bridge in Calhan and hope to start building one in Monument this fall," Gerhard said.

The county is saving money on the $250,000 project by doing the work itself and not hiring a private contractor.

Gerhard also said that the project won't affect access to homes and businesses on either side of the Curtis Road closure.