Two closures — one brief, one longer — start Monday night on Marksheffel Road project in Colorado Springs
COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. (KRDO) — For the second time in a month, a mile-long stretch of busy Marksheffel Road on the city's eastern border will close overnight in the latest phase of the ongoing widening project there.
On Monday and Tuesday nights, the northern segment of the construction area will close between Dublin and Stetson Hills boulevards, from 7 p.m. until 5:30 a.m.
The closure will allow workers to safely realign traffic patterns, as was the case during a three-night closure in early February.
A more significant closure within that area, however, will affect Ryker Peak Drive at the Marksheffel intersection — one of two streets in and out of the Mountain Valley Preserve neighborhood.
That closure begins Monday night and continues through June.
The only neighborhood access during that time is via Tarren Heights, a street slightly south of Ryker Peak; drivers are asked to follow message board instructions and directions from overnight crews.
On Friday, there were long waits for drivers trying to enter and exit Ryker Peak from Marksheffel, and Tarren Heights was closed for the day as a crew worked at that intersection.
Ed McClintock and his family moved to the neighborhood just before the widening project began.
"It is tough in the mornings, even as it is," he said. "And before the construction, hopefully they're going to put in some lights down here, like they did further near Zephyr and Graphite. Traffic lights, signals. Some sort, yeah. Because this gets pretty hectic."
Also watching the project closely is Duane Vanderwege, who has lived at the south end of the closure —where Stetson Hills becomes Huber Road, east of the Marksheffel intersection — for 44 years.
"They first told us about this project about 20 years ago," he said. "We were going to meetings then. But it took them so long to get going on it, I kinda just said: Whatever they do, they do."
Vanderwege said that he lost an acre of his five-acre lot to eminent domain for the project, but is satisfied with the compensation he received.
"They built me a new driveway," he said. "Marksheffel was just a quiet little country road when I moved here. You saw a car maybe every ten minutes or so. Now, it's bumper-to-bumper. The owner of some property across the street recently sold his land, so there will be businesses going in there now."
The $60 million project started last year and is scheduled for completion at the end of next year.
Crews have finished the project's southern end, from North Carefree Circle to slightly north of Barnes Road; the project also required widening Barnes west of Marksheffel and will be followed by a similar widening on Dublin.
For the most current information on road closures and traffic pattern changes, text IMPROVE to 866-762-3640 to receive text alerts; message boards on the corridor and the project hotline (719-645-4055) will reflect the latest schedule information.
More information is available at ColoradoSprings.gov/Marksheffel. Community members can also call 719-645-4055 or email marksheffel@workzone.info with questions.
