New westbound bridges on South Circle Drive in Colorado Springs celebrated as two-year project winds down
Scott Harrison
COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. (KRDO) — Officials held a ceremony late Thursday morning to celebrate the opening of the new westbound bridges on South Circle Drive.
Westbound traffic is still using the two old bridges, which will be demolished eventually; traffic on the two eastbound bridges opened last year.
Officials said that the westbound bridges won’t open for traffic until just before Thanksgiving, to give crews time to finish paving and lane striping.
The bridges also feature wide sidewalks, which the previous bridges lacked.
Thursday’s celebration comes as crews wrap up construction on the two-year, $45 million project to replace the bridges that were rated in poor condition and were built in 1963.
The project was among the city’s highest priorities, as those bridges now carry much more traffic than they did 60 years ago.
The bridges are part of a key corridor that links Interstate 25 at the south end of town to the center of the city.
The structures rise high above Fountain Creek, railroad tracks, Las Vegas Street, Hancock Expressway, a major utility pathway, and the Pikes Peak Greenway Trail.
Construction has been particularly challenging and frustrating at times for drivers navigating through the narrow, winding lanes, and for businesses and residents along the work zone.
Much of the zone is bordered by a mobile home park to the north and a shopping center to the south.
“We’re so happy with it being open, because it’s going to increase our front entrance much better, with access in and out of the park,” said manager Claudia Dodge. “The Janitell Road intersection is our only way in and out. There’s a second entrance to the east, but it was closed for construction, and we don’t know if it will reopen.”
Circle Drive on both sides of the bridges continues to be in rough shape, with potholes and crumbling pavement — which is why the city will repave those segments next year as part of the annual 2C expanded paving program.
Mayor Yemi Mobolade, District 4 City Council member Kimberly Gold, and Public Works Director Richard Mulledy spoke during a 10 a.m. ceremony on Thursday, and the Stockers Car Club, founded in 1958, was the first to drive across the new westbound bridges.
Some neighbors are disappointed that the sidewalks installed on the north side of the bridge don’t extend the entire length to Janitell Road, as the south side sidewalks do.
Ryan Phipps, the city’s capital improvements manager, said that the south side sidewalks are what the city recommends pedestrians use.
“There isn’t connectivity on the north side sidewalks,” he explained. “There’s further development that would construct sidewalks there.”
The area without sidewalks is along the mobile home park.
Phipps also revealed that the Willwood tunnel, a road under I-25 between Janitell and the Frontage Road near The Broadmoor World Arena — closed during the project because of traffic congestion from being used as a detour — will reopen early next year, when all traffic impacts from the project are finished.