Westbound Austin Bluffs Parkway closures to take place this weekend in Colorado Springs
COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. (KRDO) — Colorado Springs Utilities (CSU) alerts drivers to upcoming traffic impacts along a mile of Austin Bluffs Parkway as work continues on the Central Bluffs Substation project.
CSU says starting at 6 a.m. on Friday, Sept. 25, through Monday, Sept. 28, at 6 p.m., all westbound lanes of Austin Bluffs Parkway between Meadowland Boulevard and Union Boulevard will be closed.
Courtesy of Colorado Springs Utilities
Lee Pelton, CSU’s project manager, says the four-day closure is necessary because of challenges crews face while installing underground infrastructure for the new substation.
“Power lines and fiber optic cables,” he explained. “Because of sandy soil and vibrations from constant heavy traffic, some of the trenches for that infrastructure are collapsing before we can install the lines and cables. The contractor has to dig them over and over again.”
Pelton says the easiest and safest solution is to temporarily close the entire affected parkway segment, rather than lane by lane, as has happened with most closures during construction.
Officials say that eastbound traffic will remain open throughout the closure, and all lanes are expected to reopen Monday evening.
However, Pelton also says that similar work is also happening on the east side of the parkway in that area, with the right lane closed there.
CSU advises the following detour route:
Turn right onto Meadowland Boulevard, left onto North Academy Boulevard, left onto North Union Boulevard, then right onto Austin Bluffs Parkway.The substation project will combine two existing substations and a switch station into one modern facility, improving the electric grid. For more information, click here.
CSU expects to finish most of the substation construction by the end of the year, but some traffic impacts will continue into next year.
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