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A contractor crew paves the northbound off-
ramp during the last full weekend closure of Fillmore Street and its ramps June
24-27.
Speeds normalizing at Fillmore DDI; crews to wrap up by end of July
After the weekend, drivers saw a fully paved and
striped diverging diamond interchange... with almost no remaining orange barrels.
Westside Pioneer photo
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The work was part of the $15.1 million Fillmore/I-25 interchange replacement project.
Ted Tjerandsen of Wilson and Company, consultant to the Colorado Department of Transportation, reported that speeds are now closer to 30 mph (35 mph is the limit), rather than the 20 mph he saw when the area was marked with hundreds of cones and barriers and temporary stoplights.
City Traffic Engineer Kathleen Krager agreed that the change “is doing a good job of clearing the backups we used to suffer.” That, on top of the 2013 Chestnut Street realignment project (moving the street from the interchange), the effect is “more green time for Fillmore,” she elaborated.
She thinks traffic could get even smoother as people get used to it. With the DDI - which is one of the first in Colorado - Fillmore Street drivers from either direction switch sides as they travel over the interstate. This eliminates the need for left turns across traffic and cars can go on and off the ramps without needing stoplights.
The DDI also provides bike lanes and a 14-foot-wide sidewalk on the north bridge.
Replacing a bridge structure originally built in 1960, the project started in February 2015. The contractor is SEMA Construction.
The overall project is in its final stages, Tjerandsen said, with mainly concrete work, seeding, lighting and cleanup remaining to be done.
A full closure of Fillmore and its ramps June 24-27 was needed to set up the permanent DDI, but that will be the last such closure, he pledged. By the end of July, Tjerandsen predicted, “We'll be out of your hair.”
Westside Pioneer article
(Posted 7/1/16;
Transportation:
Fillmore/I-25 )
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