FOUNTAIN, Colo. (KRDO) — Crews have started a $5 million south side project near downtown that will improve one neighborhood street, close an adjacent street and ease traffic congestion to and from nearby Interstate 25 and Fort Carson.
The project — one of the last facets of the city’s Moving Fountain Forward plan approved by voters in 2009 — will widen Indiana Avenue and lengthen it from two blocks to three and add a railroad crossing.
Extending the street will connect it from its existing eastern end at Old Pueblo Road (which becomes Main Street north of that intersection, through downtown) to Santa Fe Avenue (the south end of Highway 85/87) and install traffic signals at that intersection to replace existing stop signs.
City planners say that the project will provide drivers from the south and east sides of town, with an alternate route to the already-congested Santa Fe Ave./Highway 85-87 corridor, and to busy Ohio Avenue several blocks north of Indiana Ave.
“This will relieve congestion on the few east-west corridors we have,” said Todd Evans, deputy city manager for Fountain. “It will keep people from having to go through downtown. It will improve and speed access for about 30% to 40% of city residents.”