The yellow line above indicates the widening area of RidgeGate Parkway that is planned to begin in early 2019. The road will be widened from Havana to the east boundary of the City of Lone Tree (blue area).
By Patte Smith; map courtesy of the City of Lone Tree
Traffic under I-25 and RidgeGate Parkway has been a nightmare for drivers commuting to and from work in the late afternoon and early evenings. There is a bottleneck of cars and trucks trying to merge into one lane as the road tapers down to a single lane heading east. Traveling west, there is an immense amount of traffic trying to get to I-25 in the morning.
Good news for drivers is that the City of Lone Tree is planning on widening the road in early 2019. “We hope to have this project under contract by the end of 2018 with construction starting at the beginning of next year,” stated John Cotten, P.E., City of Lone Tree public works director. “The project will begin at Havana and extend east to the City of Lone Tree east boundary.”
The plan is for RidgeGate Parkway to eventually span from two to six lanes, but it will initially be striped for four lanes. There will be raised medians, left turn lanes at intersections with signals, a separate bicycle track and an 8-foot wide sidewalk.
“Area residents will not see much construction or disruption this year, but once the project begins it will likely be under construction for 16 to 18 months,” he said. “We won’t know until the project is underway.”
According to Cotten, there will be very little impact on residents living south of RidgeGate Parkway off of Havana. “Our experience shows that most traffic coming north on Havana turns left at that intersection. The construction will begin at Havana and RidgeGate Parkway going east. The traffic should still allow fairly normal traffic flow for those coming from the south on Havana.”
The plan is to keep the two current lanes open throughout construction with an occasional exception, normally occurring outside peak traffic periods.
Information for the public will be available on message boards, emails, and social media throughout the construction period.
