Edit, about Powers & Research in particular:
It was exciting to see this project finally start, and now to see it wrapping up. I haven't been through there for a while—does anyone know if there signs of auxiliary lanes around any new ramps? I didn't know if they're making any big changes outside of the immediate interchange area; I remember feeling like aux lanes would be nice for the Union-Old Ranch segment, too.
I was also wondering if backups at Dublin or 83 were looking any different. I had heard that things were pretty bad at Research with the signal before, but I don't know if the nature of the through traffic would make things worse with that light gone.
Definitely agree with that. Supposedly that is the long term plan, as well as extending the freeway north to 25 near Northgate, and south near the speedway. However, that has been the plan for the last 20 years, sooo… yeah.
The extension of Powers Blvd from its current North end at Interquest Parkway up to I-25 has at least started. The interchange with I-25 and freeway stub to Voyager Parkway is done. Now they just have to finish the rest of the freeway down to Powers. At least they have the ROW set aside already. I'm kind of surpised they were able to even propose any of this at all. The freeway will cut through the North part of the Flying Horse golf course. I'm guessing CDOT will build at least one or more golf cart friendly pedestrian bridges over the roadway. It looks like Flying Horse Club Drive will get a freeway exit.
It might be coming up sooner than later. It's come up at the last few Colorado Springs Urban Renewal Authority board meetings; unfortunately, recent meeting videos aren't accessible, but there are some linked notes
here. The Copper Ridge Metro District (essentially, the Polaris Pointe development) is driving that, but the city also put the extension on the PPRTA 3 proposal list; CDOT isn't really involved aside from signing off on designs and eventually accepting the road as Highway 21.
It surprises me too that they finagled this corridor preservation. Dedicating right-of-way for Powers was a condition of annexing Flying Horse and approving the plan, and somehow it hasn't come up as a controversial issue as things have become more concrete lately. Of course, there's always time for that to happen later—how many people took note of "Proposed Powers Blvd (Freeway)" when they were picking lots in the new development, or had any idea in a resale case?
I'm holding out a little bit of hope for some ramps around Flying Horse Club Drive, but it seems unlikely. The way the plans were set up, there would be a grade separation there, and CDOT gave the Flying Horse developer permission to add ramps.
Come 2018, they expanded the developed area into the northwest quadrant. (Minutes
here have some more discussion.) The reason I keep a small bit of hope is that apparently, anecdotally, Ridgeline Dr and the intersection with Voyager is kind of gross and busy, so you could maybe get enough complaints to have the south-side ramps put it at FHC Dr. But probably not.
Also, what's the latest on that "Banning Lewis Ranch" parkway or freeway or whatever it is? Is that effort pretty much dead or what? Meanwhile I think CDOT or whoever has the jurisdiction needs to look at building some grade separated intersections along Woodmen Road.
Banning Lewis Parkway is planned as a major arterial which will generally be built with four lanes and expandable to six (possibly just be eating the median). The first tiny segment of it has been built a bit north of (but not yet connecting to, I believe) Dublin Blvd, to give the lightest touch of redundant access to first set of houses to the east of its ROW. Other developments are getting going that could get it from Stetson Hills to Woodmen in the coming years, but the part that'll probably come soonest is just north of Woodmen, in
Percheron.
On the downgrade, in 2018, the city and Norwood (the developer that owns most of BLR) finalized an
annexation agreement update that changed BL Pkwy from a freeway to an arterial and reduced the right-of-way dedication requirements (from 300ft plus interchange space to 142ft). Excess ROW already dedicated could be vacated. The plan-amending for BLR is so piecemeal that it's hard to say how it'll come out in the end, but you can see Norwood's intention in
this map from their website.
Unfortunately with Woodmen, they seem to be headed in the direction of chipping away access control with new RIROs and building uncomfortably close to the signalized intersections. Woodmen east of Powers is already designated an expressway, but the
ConnectCOS draft proposes calling the rest of it to I-25 the same (ditching the "Parkway" classification that it and part of Austin Bluffs had). There's also a proposal to study moving US 24 to it and downgrading the rest of US 24 a major arterial. (See the classification map
here.)
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On extending Powers south of Mesa Ridge Pkwy, there's a
PEL study in progress now. Meanwhile, some development plans are coming in for the extension area between Mesa Ridge Pkwy and Squirrel Creek Rd, so we might see a path form or some interim roadways.
Author
Topic: CO-21 and Reaserch Pkwy interchange construction (Read 1099 times)