acceleration/deceleration lanes US 50 Fremont County CO

[iowegian3]

US 50 in Fremont County is a four lane, 65 MPH highway from Canon City east to Pueblo.  It's also fraught with a number of dangerous and deadly at-grade intersections.

The first aerial pic is actually west of Canon City in a super-two section, US 50 and Fremont County 3B, the road to the Royal Gorge Bridge:


All pics face north by the way...In the eastbound lanes a single lane opens to two lanes for the right turn to county 3B.  This lane only lasts about 1200 ft.  Then NB county 3B merges into EB 50, with a conflict trying to merge into the right lane of EB 50 before it ends shortly after into the left lane of EB 50.  Just doesn't seem to function very well.

East of Canon City US 50 opens up into a four lane expressway.  A number of at grade intersections have no left turn deceleration lanes, including the one below where a road heads south into a small housing development, and to the north into the driveway of Pikes Peak Motor, a very large classic car boneyard recently relocated from Fountain CO  (I'd like to take a tour!)  Sadly, there was a fatality accident there a year and a half ago, and the CO DOT concluded that the median crossover had to be closed permanently.  WB 50 trying to turn left onto the gravel road south now has to travel nearly a mile to another median crossover with no acceleration or deceleration lanes, then double back.


a couple miles further east, it gets worse as the median narrows to barely 24 feet wide, no left turn A/D lanes...be very careful in the fast lane lest you create a rear-end collision.


Last pic is the intersection of US 50 and CO 120, which is primarily a truck route that serves a large cement mill.  OK to decelerate to make left turns off of 50, but turning left from CO 120 onto 50... trying to get a view of oncoming traffic with that acute angle, it's a little too thrilling.  We value our lives:  we simply won't make a left turn from CO 120 to 50 anymore.


Take the worst attributes of California and Missouri, and you have Colorado.  It shows in the sub-par roads. 

The gas tax funding mechanism isn't working anymore, so there are problems everywhere.  But Missouri and Colorado have had problem roads for decades. 

[The High Plains Traveler]

I live in Pueblo West, less than 1/4 mile off U.S. 50. The segment through Pueblo West has been upgraded to handle the heavy commuter traffic to and from Pueblo, and is posted 65 mph. There are three intersections through here, two of which are signalized, and the other a side road. From these intersections, there are quarter mile-long free-flow lanes to allow right turns onto 50 at the three intersections without waiting for an opening in the traffic. A third lane is currently under construction inbound to Pueblo from the easternmost intersection (the westbound project, which will be much more expensive, is awaiting funding).

That stretch of 50 through Penrose, which you showed some intersections of above, is scary for the reasons you indicated. This had to have been constructed in the 1960s, considering the narrow median and lack of turn/acceleration lanes. A lot of people turn off of 50 onto the many side roads into the Penrose residential area, mostly north of the highway. That segment is definitely not limited access like it is through Pueblo West, and thus not a true expressway. I'm surprised in a sense that there aren't more serious accidents.

[NE2]

Poo blows west in Colorado.

[The High Plains Traveler]

According to the natives, that's Pee-Ebb-Blow.