Installation of traffic signals at busy Colorado Springs intersection to require extended partial closure
Scott Harrison
COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. (KRDO) — Although the intersection of Marksdheffel and Peaceful Valley roads is in the Colorado Springs city limits, the neighborhoods around it are in unincorporated El Paso County, and the area is slightly north of the Fountain city limits.
Those are interesting aspects of a project that began on Tuesday to install traffic signals at the intersection.
For the next six to eight weeks, traffic on Peaceful Valley will be unable to cross Marksheffel or turn there, and Marksheffel drivers will be unable to turn onto Peaceful Valley.
Todd Frisbie, the city’s head traffic engineer, said that residents of a growing new neighborhood west of the intersection asked for signals to be installed there because of heavy traffic that made turns onto and off Marksheffel challenging.
“We did a study, probably a few years ago,” he explained. “There was a little confusion at the intersection because you had a right (turn) in and a right out on the west side of the intersection. On the east side of the intersection, you had a full movement. I think it just added a level of complexity.”
The first step in the $500,000 project is to remove the right-turn-only median on the west side of the intersection.
“There will be traffic signals, a new curb and gutter that we’re putting in, and a crosswalk across Marksheffel. That includes the design cost.”
In addition to the growing new neighborhood west of the intersection, an older, existing neighborhood is on the opposite side; there’s also significant traffic from the Lorson Ranch neighborhood to the north, and from Fountain to the south.
The detour around the construction is the next intersection north, at Poa Annua Street.
In a related project, the city is installing left-turn signals at the Marksheffel/Fontaine Boulevard intersection outside Lorson Ranch and more home construction to the west along Fontaine.
That project isn’t impacting traffic and should be finished soon.
Frisbie added that the east side of the Marksheffel/Peaceful Valley intersection will temporarily reopen during construction to allow drivers to access a church.
He revealed that the city annually receives several dozen requests to install traffic signals, but grants only a handful.