Road Work Ahead

COSMIX crews will shift into overdrive this summer as major reconstruction of I-25 begins

COSMIX - The $150 million Colorado Springs Metro Interstate Expansion - will widen Interstate 25 through Colorado Springs, helping ease congestion along a stretch of highway that has seen a dramatic increase in traffic in the last five decades.

Photo by Jackie Shumaker

The largest highway project in the history of Colorado Springs will hit the one-year mark this summer, ushering in a period of the most intense construction yet.

The $150 million Colorado Springs Metro Interstate Expansion - best known as COSMIX - will widen I-25 to three lanes in each direction from Circle Drive to North Academy Boulevard and improve the configuration of several key interchanges and bridges along the 12-plus miles of the corridor.

Ground was broken in early July 2005. Although the original plan asked for a 2008 finish, Rockrimmon Constructors, a joint venture between CH2M Hill and SEMA Construction Inc., committed to completing the job in 2007 - a promise upon which the contractor might even improve.

"We're actually advancing the schedule," said Rockrimmon's Bill Badger. "We've realized now that [finishing in 2007] is more than reachable, and so we're reaching to get it done even earlier."

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Easing Congestion

COSMIX was born from the undisputed need to widen Interstate 25 through Colorado Springs, a stretch of highway that, like so many other areas of the Front Range, has seen a dramatic increase in traffic in the last several decades.

"When this stretch of I-25 opened in 1960, the highway carried about 8,500 vehicles a day," Gov. Bill Owens said during the July 5 groundbreaking ceremony. "Now, 45 years later, some 100,000 vehicles travel I-25 every day through Colorado Springs. And by 2020, that number is projected to be 170,000 vehicles per day."

Colorado Department of Transportation Executive Director Tom Norton agreed.

"COSMIX is the next step for highway transportation in Colorado Springs," said Norton. "This project will be a significant step in reducing congestion through this busy corridor."

The project is part of CDOT's long-term plans to ease congestion and improve mobility on I-25 through the Pikes Peak region. It's being funded by a TRANs bond ballot initiative approved by voters in 1999.

"CDOT committed to completing the six-laning of I-25 through Colorado Springs by 2007 and COSMIX meets that commitment," Norton said. "Without funding from the TRANs bond program, this project would not be completed until 2018 at the soonest."

The city of Colorado Springs and Pikes Peak Rural Transportation Authority also committed $10 million, enabling the extension of North Nevada Avenue to Corporate Center Drive, as well as the reconstruction of the Bijou Street Bridge over Monument Creek.

People-Pleasing Plan

The overall plan for completing COSMIX follows this general timeframe:

• Summer 2005 through end of the year - Construction of I-25 south of Mark Dabling, from Garden of the Gods Road to Fillmore Street.
• Fall 2005 through Fall 2006 - Construction of the Nevada and Rockrimmon ramps, a new southbound frontage road and the Corporate Drive extension.
• Spring 2006 through Fall 2006 - Widening I-25 mainline between Woodmen Road and North Academy Boulevard.
• Summer 2006 through Fall 2007 - Reconstruction of the Bijou interchange, including replacement of the Bijou bridge (which will be closed from January 2007 through October 2007) and completion of the newly reconfigured Rockrimmon Boulevard/Nevada interchange.
• Summer 2006 through Winter 2007 - Work on I-25 mainline and completion of the reconfigured Rockrimmon Boulevard/Nevada interchange.

The work completed to date has gone smoothly, even winning raves from Colorado Springs residents who were polled last December about the project.

More than 60 percent of Colorado Springs residents who live along Interstate 25 said COSMIX is progressing well or extremely well; 55 percent of commuters and 80 percent of businesses along I-25 also think everything is going well.

"The project team conducted the research as part of the project's goal to minimize inconvenience to the public," said Dave Poling, CDOT's COSMIX project manager. "Construction impacts are unavoidable, but we can minimize those impacts to residents, businesses and commuters by effectively communicating with them and explaining how construction activities impact their daily lives so they can better cope with construction. Knowing how they feel about the project and the effectiveness of our communications efforts is key to this."

Badger believes people were primed to expect the worst once construction began.

"I think people were expecting major traffic impacts," he said. "I think we're doing a pretty good job minimizing the impacts and at least communicating to the public."

That said, big changes are just ahead.

"The big traffic shifts will be in June and July. That's when we shift all I-25 traffic off the main line onto the frontage roads we're building," Badger said. "That opens up the entire interstate segment for reconstruction."

Work will also begin this summer on the Colorado Avenue bridge, one of 20 bridges associated with COSMIX. The biggest impact to commuters is expected to begin on Jan. 2, 2007, when crews tackle the heavily trafficked Bijou Bridge.

"That's their lifeline to downtown," Badger said.

Design-Build Approach

COSMIX is using a design-build approach to provide the best value for CDOT and a faster build-out of the project to reduce inconvenience to the public. The traditional design-bid-build method was not used because of the project's size and location in a major urban area.

"One of the benefits of design-build is that it allows for more flexibility," Badger said. "It allows us to start construction in certain areas while other areas are still under design."

Approximately 30 percent of COSMIX was designed before the contract was awarded.

"You're starting construction earlier so you can address problems earlier," Badger said.

Of course, the design-build approach comes with its own concerns.

"You do have the challenge of getting approvals in a rapid turnaround from all agencies - the city, CDOT, contractor," Badger said. "For instance, sometimes some of the agencies are looking for more information than is available. You just have to go with what you've got and keep going."

As such, coordination and cooperation are key.

"We - CDOT and us, the contractor - have offices together and the city comes to every one of our task force meetings, which are pretty much weekly," Badger said.

'Sweetening the Pot'

Besides its commitment to finish COSMIX in 2007, Rockrimmon Constructors signed onto the project with another promise: to complete five optional elements on CDOT's "wish list" of work that it couldn't fit into the project's fixed budget.

Seven Additional Requested Elements, or AREs, were included in the request for proposal that CDOT issued for COSMIX in September 2004. 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 of them.

"The added value in I-25 improvements that the Pikes Peak region receives from these AREs, at no additional cost to the taxpayer, was one of the key factors for CDOT in selecting Rockrimmon Constructors," Poling said.

The AREs included work that began last fall on the ramps at the Garden of the Gods/Interstate 25 interchange, designed to improve safety and capacity at one of Colorado Springs's busiest interchanges; reconstruction of the Colorado Avenue bridge; improvements to the Mark Dabling interchange; and the build-out of all bridges and corridors so that, in the future, they can accommodate four lanes of traffic and full shoulders.

"Those additional things are kind of sweetening the pot," Badger said.

Seeing Green

The COSMIX project team has also kept an eye on the environment throughout construction.

Last year, after completing work around the North Nevada Avenue and Rockrimmon Boulevard interchanges, crews planted more than 200 new trees native to Colorado. They were planted along Monument Creek near I-25 to preserve the natural environment and replace trees that will be lost during construction.

"Environmental conservation is an important facet of the COSMIX project," Poling said. "With Monument Creek running parallel to I-25 for virtually the length of the project, our goal is to protect the scenic beauty and ecology of the creek and ensure that the trail remains open and enjoyable for recreational users."

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