CDOT announces overnight ramp closures overnight Monday, Tuesday on Interstate 25 near Fountain

FOUNTAIN, Colo. (KRDO) -- This has been a summer of traffic impacts on I-25 between South Academy Boulevard in Colorado Springs and Santa Fe Avenue in Fountain, and the impacts continue this week.

The Colorado Department of Transportation (CDOT) will temporarily close the two southbound exit ramps on I-25 at the Mesa Ridge Parkway overnight Monday, and both ramps on the northbound side; the closures will start at 7 p.m. and end at 5 a.m.

CDOT asks that drivers use Santa Fe as detour for the southbound closure and South Academy as the detour for the northbound closure.

The closure will allow crews to apply permanent striping (lane markers) over the existing temporary lane markers; the striping is actually tape that must be heated with torches to adhere to the pavement.

"We actually need to do a little bit of grinding to place that tape in there, so that it's kind of recessed," said Randy Johnson, a CDOT project engineer. "It gives it longevity. Not that we do plow in that area, but it's always helpful that our CDOT plow drivers go into that area, their plows stay above it."

The striping is one of the final touches on the two-year, $161 million Military Access, Mobility & Safety Improvement Project (MAMSIP) to provide better traffic flow around local military installations.

The I-25 part of the MAMSIP incudes replacing the overpasses at South Academy Boulevard; replacing aging asphalt with concrete on 7.5 miles between South Academy and Santa Fe; replacing damaged guardrails; widening road shoulders; creating several pull-off lanes; and repaving small stretches of asphalt.

Johnson said that the remaining tasks are to make minor repairs where needed and visually inspect the length of the project.

Crews also will build a concrete wall instead of a median near the south end of I-25, where the elevation is slightly higher than the northbound side.

"It's a safety feature and a structural difference," he explained. "It will flatten out some of the slopes on the higher end."

A center strip of pavement along the project area is being kept unused for future use -- possibly as another traffic lane or even a commuter rail corridor.

Johnson said that the project remains on schedule for completion by late September or early October.