Updating status of MAMSIP road projects five years later
COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. (KRDO) -- Now that a major construction project on Interstate 25 between here and Fountain should wrap up this week -- as KRDO 13's The Road Warrior reported Monday -- it's a good time to review three other projects that were part of MAMSIP.
The acronym stands for the Military Access, Mobility and Safety Improvement Project.
Local leaders broke ground on the quartet of projects in June 2021 -- contributing $161-million -- with the goal of upgrading safety and access around area military installations.
The Colorado Department of Transportation (CDOT), El Paso County, the Pikes Peak Rural Transportation Authority (PPRTA) and the federal government conceived the projects 2019 and provided funding.
Local leaders realized that with a growing population, increasing traffic and expanding military installations, they needed to be proactive and make getting into, out of and around those installations easier and safer.
The biggest of the four projects was replacing 7.5 miles of deteriorating asphalt with concrete and replacing two overpasses on I-25, just east of Fort Carson, between South Academy Boulevard and Santa Fe Avenue.
That project included widening the road shoulders for added traffic safety and improving the center median; CDOT said that traffic impacts because of it, should end by the weekend.
Another project to benefit Fort Carson was on Charter Oak Ranch Road, at the south Fountain exit off i-25 and the only route to the Mountain Post's Gate 19.
Crews built a roundabout at a three-way intersection, rebuilt and widened the road to the gate, built sidewalks and improved drainage.
Workers completed the two-year project a year ago; the road can now hold more traffic and reduces congestion at Gate 20 to the north.
A third MAMSIP project started last year on three miles of South Academy between I-25 and Milton E. Proby Parkway, the main route to the airport.
Crews are widening the corridor to three lanes in each direction and repairing several bridges; it'll tie in with the I-25 improvements but it won't be finished until the middle of 2026.
The final MAMSIP project was completed along nine miles of Highway 94 between Peterson and Schriever Space Force bases.
It created a westbound passing lane, Installed fiber optic cables and built an intersection with a traffic signal and a "jug handle" spur to keep slow-moving vehicles out of the passing lane.
For more information, visit: https://www.codot.gov/projects/militaryaccesssafetyimprovements/overview.
