North Meadows Extension – U.S. Highway 85 overpass design complete, construction soon
By Elizabeth Wood West; project overview provided by the Town of Castle Rock
The Town of Castle Rock (Town) has completed the design and is moving closer to the construction of an overpass that will provide a secondary access for northbound traffic coming from The Meadows development onto U.S. Highway 85 in Castle Rock.
The overpass project is the first of three phases (or “packages”) that will comprise the Town’s North Meadows Extension (NME), a long-term, multi-million dollar roadway project. The NME project will be located just north of Castle Rock. It is expected to help relieve traffic congestion along Founders and Meadows Parkway at the U.S. Highway 85 and I-25 intersections, and also improve traffic flow for I-25 on/off ramps in this area.
Town Engineering Manager Dan Sailer said, “Big picture-wise, we are wrapping up the design phase. We are currently at 100 percent design completion on Package #1, 95 percent design completion on Package #2, and 60 percent design completion on Package #3.”
Sailer continued, “We are currently working with property owners on Package #1 to acquire the property necessary to begin construction. Once we obtain all the properties needed on Package #1, we will need the Colorado Department of Transportation’s clearance to begin construction.”
Sailer anticipates that construction within Package #1 could begin this fall, but cautions that this timeline is not definite because the Town does not maintain full control of such authorization. “We’ll follow this same process for Packages #2 and #3, and hope to be under construction for these two by the end of this year or early in 2014. We are still projecting a project completion timeframe of the end of 2015,” said Sailer.
For further information, visit www.CRgov.com/NME or e-mail dsailer@crgov.com.
