I-25 “gap” needs fixing — fast
Group says project is key to eco-devo
Months after the Colorado Department of Transportation said it would accelerate its process to widen Interstate 25 between Colorado Springs and Denver, a group of Douglas and El Paso county officials are advocating for expediency when it comes to improving a particularly narrow stretch of the highway.
The I-25 Gap Coalition is focused mainly on a roughly 17-mile stretch of the interstate between Castle Rock and Monument, known as “the gap,” where the highway is four-lanes wide. It’s a dangerous segment of highway where two Colorado State Patrol troopers were stuck and killed by passing drivers while responding to calls in the area within 13 months of each other.
“What the goal is to create a parallel, proactive advocacy group that goes alongside CDOT to accelerate the improvements to this stretch of the state highway,” Douglas County commissioner Roger Partridge said during coalition’s launch event Wednesday.
The coalition includes representatives from the both highway-crossed counties, Castle Rock, Colorado Springs and other cities, towns and economic development groups from up and down the transportation corridor.
At their first meeting, coalition members emphasized the importance of widening and improving the highway as a catalyst for economic development.
“The citizens of El Paso County are focused on this issue. They want it done. They understand that is absolutely key to economic development between two of the 40 largest cities in America and it’s absolutely key to public safety,” Colorado Springs Mayor John Suthers said of tending to the lifeline between Denver and his city.
CDOT is holding a public meeting from 5 to 7 p.m. Tuesday at the Douglas County Fairgrounds Events Center, 500 Fairgrounds Road, in Castle Rock to discuss its planning and environmental linkages, or PEL, study for what it calls the Colorado Springs Denver South Connection project.
Another meeting will be held from 5 to 7 p.m. Thursday at the Pikes Peak Library 21c, 1175 Chapel Hills Drive, Colorado Springs.
The agency announced in January it intends to speed up the environmental and planning process for the project. CDOT’s goal is to begin work on the corridor by the summer of 2019 and complete work on ‘the gap” between Castle Rock and Monument in five years.