Maintenance work on Fillmore Street bridges in Colorado Springs buys time for eventual replacement

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. (KRDO) -- Two bridges on Fillmore Street, just east of Interstate 25, were built in the 1960s and weren't designed the increased traffic loads they bear today.

City officials plan to replace both bridges within the next five to ten years, at an estimated cost of $45 million; one bridge crosses the Union Pacific Railroad tracks while the other spans the popular Pikes Peak Greenway Trail along Monument Creek.

The city has acquired bridge replacement funding from the federal infrastructure bill passed by Congress several years ago, and also is using $750,000 in federal money to conduct a planning study for the new bridges.

Until they are built, however, they need improvements and an eight-month project to extend their use started last month.

Workers are repairing the bridge decks, to be followed by waterproofing and repaving; the project is currently focusing on the north side of the bridges and will later switch to the south sides.

The current bridges don't have shoulders that traffic can pull over onto, but the new bridges will -- as well as wider sidewalks to increase safety for pedestrians and other non-motorized traffic.

"Those bridges are really old, actually," said Richard Mulledy, the city's deputy public works director. "They were originally built in the 1960s, and then kind of added to and expanded in the 1970s. But obviously, that's a pretty long time ago."

The bridge across the creek and trail, for example, had sensors installed several years ago so that officials could track the amount of shifting that happens on it.

Traffic is now reduced to one lane on the westbound side of the bridge work, with a similar configuration when repairs on the eastbound side begin.

Even under normal conditions, Fillmore is a narrow, congested corridor; the bridge project causes considerable backups during the day as vehicles enter and exit I-25 during the busy summer travel season.

" I don't think it's necessary to ask people to detour," Mulledy said. "I mean, that is a busy intersection -- especially in the morning and at night when you have people commuting in and out of downtown, and generally from east to west. But, we have a good maintenance and operations plan and a good traffic plan to try and keep that intersection flowing."