Overnight paving signals beginning of end for part of South Academy upgrades in Colorado Springs

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. (KRDO) -- We're finally seeing the light at the end of the tunnel for part of the South Academy Boulevard improvements project.

Overnight paving this week is a sign that the northern half of the project Is winding down.

"Beautiful. Those fresh stripes on black asphalt, there's nothing like it," Ryan Phipps, the city's capital improvements manager, said with excitement in a recent interview with KRDO.

Crews are paving the newly-constructed roadway between Bijou Street and Airport Road, just south of the Citadel Mall.

Work on the project started a year-and-a-half ago.

The paving started overnight Sunday and is scheduled to end overnight Wednesday, with Thursday set aside in case of a weather delay.

Crews paved the southbound lanes the first two nights and are now paving the northbound lanes which will be closed from 7 p.m. until 6 a.m. during the paving.

Crews are putting down the final two inches of the 7.5 inches of new asphalt.

Under and along that corridor, crews have improved drainage and installed or relocated utility lines.

"That's been one of our biggest challenges," Phipps explained. "To provide stormwater drainage because the the previous road didn't really have stormwater conveyance. We have to find a place in the ground to put these large pipes for stormwater. You know, that's very difficult. We're also upgrading our sanitary and water systems so that they're resilient going well into the future. And there's just, you know, when you put all of that together, the tremendous amount of traffic, all of these businesses, how congested the corridor is already."

There's a new center median, as well.

It all means that in just a few weeks, life returns to normal for traffic -- and especially for the surrounding businesses that have tried to cope with construction.

"Everything else has been built up," Phipps said. "The concrete work is done. All the utilities are done north of Airport, and we're just doing that final top now and then after Labor Day, we'll come back in overnight and we'll do the final striping, the pavement markings, your crosswalks, the arrows for turn lanes, things of that nature. So this is just this last, last bit for the project."

The city says that the goal is to return to normal traffic flow in a few weeks and to finish the entire project by halloween.

Nothing scary about that.

The Airport Road intersection of South Academy has been partially or fully closed at times during this project because of utility work and intersection upgrades; Eastbound Airport will remain closed through September but westbound is now open with one lane in each direction.

Meanwhile, a similar project on South Academy between Fountain Boulevard and Jet Wing Drive continues until sometime in 2026; groundwater issues have added a year to the timeline.

"We have a couple more weeks of restoration and then it is going to be re-opened to traffic on the south as well," Phipps said. "At this point, we're going to wait until next construction season to continue any more construction activities on the southern segment of South Academy." 

Closures and detours are in place during the overnight paving.

Both projects cost a combined $62 million.