Loan OK'd to Speed I-70 Viaduct Repairs/COSMIX Starts Work at Garden of the Gods

A $5.5 million contingency funding loan approved by the Colorado Transportation Commission in October will expedite much-needed repairs on the I-70 viaduct between Brighton and Colorado boulevards.

I-70 Viaduct Repairs to Start Soon

The Colorado Transportation Commission agreed in October to provide a $5.5 million contingency funding loan to the Colorado Department of Transportation's Denver metro region.

The loan will expedite much-needed repairs on the I-70 viaduct between Brighton Boulevard and Colorado Boulevard and will be repaid using potential funding sources allocated to the region.

"The loan will help us move forward with an $8 million project that will increase the life of this bridge by up to 10 years until we can replace it," said CDOT Regional Transportation Director Pam Hutton. "This first phase of the project will allow us to replace expansion joints and provide temporary shoring. As additional funding becomes available in the future, we will continue to make further repairs to the viaduct."

The repairs will include expansion joints, bearing replacement and drain modifications. Temporary shoring will be included as part of the bridge work to ensure public safety during construction.

The total cost of all repairs is estimated to be at least $30 million.

While CDOT looks for state and federal funding to make additional viaduct repairs, the environmental impact statement is analyzing transportation alternatives to improve the I-70 corridor from I-25 to Tower Road. The study, which should be complete in 2008, will determine if the viaduct should be replaced or removed altogether.

CDOT estimates that replacement or realignment of the highway could cost as much as $600 million. CDOT's annual budget is approximately $800 million, including maintenance and construction.

The first project to repair the I-70 viaduct will be advertised this December, and construction will begin in February or March 2006.

COSMIX Starts Work at Garden of the Gods

Rockrimmon Constructors has begun COSMIX construction work on the ramps at the Garden of the Gods/Interstate 25 interchange, which will improve safety and capacity at one of Colorado Springs's busiest interchanges.
Two ramps - the northbound on-ramp and southbound off-ramp - will be reconstructed, with work on the northbound ramp under way first. It is expected to take approximately two months to complete.

The Garden of the Gods interchange improvements are one of five optional elements to the COSMIX contract that Rockrimmon Constructors has committed to completing during the project. The optional work - called Additional Requested Elements, or AREs - represents a "wish list" of I-25 work that the Colorado Department of Transportation could not fit into the project's fixed budget of $150 million.

Seven optional AREs were included in the request for proposal that CDOT issued for the COSMIX project in September 2004, in addition to the required work of widening I-25 to three lanes in each direction from just south of Bijou Street to the North Academy Boulevard interchange and reconstruction of interchanges at Bijou, North Nevada Avenue, Rockrimmon Boulevard and Corporate Centre Drive.

The AREs do not add any additional cost to the project budget. Proposals from contractors for the project were judged, in part, on how many of the seven AREs they committed to doing. Rockrimmon Constructors committed to completing five AREs, as well as the entire COSMIX project by the end of 2007, a year earlier than requested by CDOT. The work at the Garden of the Gods interchange will add an additional lane to the northbound on-ramp.

Rockrimmon Constructors will keep one lane open to the public by phasing this work. The second portion of interchange work will be on the southbound off-ramp and provide two right and two left turn lanes onto Garden of the Gods, which will increase capacity and improve safety. The southbound work may begin later this year or be delayed until spring 2006, depending on weather and other factors.

The COSMIX team is currently working with the city of Colorado Springs and area businesses and residents to find the best concept for conducting that phase of work. The improvements to the Garden of the Gods interchange are considered one of several benefits the Pikes Peak region will gain because of the design-build approach on COSMIX.

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