Drainage project prior to street repaving in north Colorado Springs reaches midway point; traffic impacts begin
Scott Harrison
COLORADO SPRINGS/EL PASO COUNTY, Colo. (KRDO) — A stormwater project that started around Thanksgiving is about to cross busy North Gate Boulevard, marking the halfway point in a $5 million project that will lead to much-needed repaving work.
The county’s public works department is building a retention basin on the south side of the boulevard, between the northbound and southbound Interstate 25 overpasses.
Crews are also installing 3,000 feet of concrete pipes; construction is now in front of the Mining Museum and is ready to move north across North Gate, eventually advancing uphill to a new roundabout on Struthers Road.
The area is near the line between city and county jurisdictions and within the jurisdictions of the Air Force Academy and the Colorado Department of Transportation.
All four entities are partners in the project.
Because of the construction, traffic is down to one lane in each direction on the approaches to the crossover point, and eastbound North Gate is closed there — requiring traffic in both directions to share the westbound lanes.
Those traffic impacts began on Wednesday and will continue through the project’s expected completion in May.
“The dry weather we’ve had has really helped us make great progress,” said John Lantz, a senior engineer with the county. “Even the rain we had earlier in the week hasn’t been an issue. If it snows on Friday, we’ll work through it.”
After the county finishes the project, the city plans to repave the area as part of its annual 2C expanded paving program.
As KRDO 13’s The Road Warrior reported in the summer of 2024, neighbors and drivers have been frustrated by how long the work has taken, and how the condition of Struthers in particular has deteriorated.
Residents said that paving was supposed to happen five years ago, but couldn’t proceed until all involved parties could agree on the stormwater project.
Last year, the city repaved eastbound North Gate in front of the museum and filled numerous potholes around the North Gate/Struthers intersection, but many of those patches popped out over the winter.
In fact, The Road Warrior crew heard three vehicles blow their tires during a Friday morning live report — possibly while hitting one of several sizeable potholes on westbound North Gate.