 The new stoplights (right) at Parker Street are green for Fillmore Street as crews with Blue Ridge Construction continue work on the Fillmore/Chestnut realignment project this week. In the background is the interchange intersection with its old set of stoplights. It will have one less cycle when Chestnut's reroute to the current Parker intersection is complete, which is expected to happen in June or July. Westside Pioneer photo
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For now, the stoplight will be green for Fillmore traffic most of the time, except when a car leaving the waffle restaurant via Parker triggers a light change or when equipment needs to cross the road, according to site superintendent Leif Neufeld of Blue Ridge Construction.
People are still getting used to the light, he believes, mentioning that he's seen eastbound motorists, when backed up on Fillmore, fail to leave a gap in the Parker intersection while they waited for the Chestnut light to change.
Elsewhere in the project, crews are continuing to rough in the new Chestnut Avenue alignment, with utilities, cable and phone lines being laid in. The reroute will curve west from the Fillmore-I-25 interchange to let Chestnut cross Fillmore where Parker is now. The new Chestnut “legs,” as the construction team calls them, start a few hundred feet south and north of Fillmore.
Neufeld estimated that the “legs” will probably be ready for use, including paved roadway, curb, gutter and sidewalks, as well as some widening on that part of Fillmore, by June or July.
Relieving Fillmore congestion west of I-25 was on the A list of the 2004 voter-approved RTA, which is spending $7.2 million on the project.
A side aspect of the project is working out engineering issues between the city and the Colorado Department of Transportation (CDOT), which is planning to replace the adjacent Fillmore/I-25 interchange in the near future. The idea is to minimize “throwaway” from the RTA project when CDOT comes in, Neufeld said.
Westside Pioneer article