CDOT makes safety improvements at crash-prone interchange in north Colorado Springs
COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. (KRDO) — The Colorado Department of Transportation (CDOT) recently completed a project designed to improve traffic safety by reducing crashes at the junction of two state highways.
CDOT performed the upgrades on southbound Highway 83, slightly north of where it becomes Interquest Parkway, where North Powers Boulevard (Highway 21) ends.
KRDO 13’s The Road Warrior learned of the project from Gayle Sturdivant — the city’s deputy public works director — while interviewing her on another topic last week.
“If you go back and look over the last few months, there have been several major traffic crashes where people were going on southbound 83 and turning onto southbound Powers,” she explained.
CDOT’s solution was to add a second left-turn lane and a second left-turn signal on southbound 83; when those signals are green, they stop northbound 83 traffic to allow for safer turning onto Powers.
“There are a lot of people who make that left turn,” Sturdivanjt said. “Before, it was a permissive left turn, and it was just a signaling. And if it appeared clear, you could go. Now, they’ve got two lanes, and it’s protected.”
The city’s connection to the project is that it’s working with CDOT to eventually redesign the interchange as part of the ongoing project to extend Powers north to I-25.
The Road Warrior will update the status of that effort in a report coming soon.
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