Colorado Springs to gradually connect three existing streets east to Banning Lewis Parkway

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. (KRDO) -- While work continues on the three-year, $55 million widening of Marksheffel Road on the city's eastern border, another project has begun to extend three existing streets a mile east to the growing Banning Lewis Ranch subdivision.

Several developers are financing the extensions of Stetson Hills Boulevard, Barnes Road, and North Carefree Circle to connect between Marksheffel Road and the new Banning Lewis Parkway, which opened last year as the major north-south route through that community.

The city said that North Carefree will stop just short of the parkway but connect to side streets from the parkway.

Dublin Boulevard already connects to the parkway, and city officials said that it will eventually connect to US 24 between the Woodmen Road and Constitution Avenue interchanges.

All four streets form the length of the Marksheffel widening, which began in late summer of 2023 and is on schedule for completion by the end of the year.

Gayle Sturdivant, the city's deputy public works director, said that the city will assume maintenance responsibility for the street extensions two years after completion.

But it will be a gradual process.

Construction geared up this summer on the Stetson Hills and Barnes extensions, with construction activity visible on the east side of Marksheffel at those intersections and moving east.

As of yet, no construction appears to be happening for the North Carefree extension.

A common criticism from ranch residents is that the Marksheffel widening should have happened a decade before the housing boom began there.

City officials have learned from that, and hope to be better prepared for future growth and traffic with the street extensions.