After five years of lane shifts, bridge work and construction-zone headaches, a $161 million transportation project serving Colorado Springs, Fountain and the surrounding military corridor has reached completion.
The Colorado Department of Transportation and its regional partners announced Tuesday that the Military Access, Mobility & Safety Improvement Project is finished, with the final South Academy Boulevard work closing out the long-running effort. CDOT Executive Director Shoshana Lew said the upgrades will provide “safer and more predictable access” to the region’s military installations, according to CDOT’s announcement.
What The Five-Year Project Changed
The project improved four strategic corridors: Interstate 25, Colorado Highway 94, South Academy Boulevard and Charter Oak Ranch Road. According to the Colorado Department of Transportation, the I-25 portion covered about 7.5 miles between South Academy Boulevard and the Santa Fe Avenue exit in Fountain, near Fort Carson’s Gate 19.
That I-25 work included replacing two aging bridges, widening shoulders, adding a full-length median barrier, placing a concrete surface overlay and maintaining four additional bridges. Crews also lengthened a southbound deceleration lane at the CO 16 interchange, giving drivers a little more room to make decisions before the highway starts making them for them…