Kings Valley Road interchange given $30 million price tag

Six months after the Colorado Department of Transportation said it would move forward with designing and constructing an underpass to address safety concerns at the intersection of U.S. 285 and Kings Valley Road in Conifer, the department is now suspending those plans in favor of a much pricier interchange.

“We were hoping to be able to design the underpass so that we could construct it within the existing right-of-way and within the $3 million to $3.5 million range,” said Jana Spiker, resident engineer with CDOT. “As we proceeded to design the underpass (over the summer), it became apparent that in order to meet acceptable design standards, this would require additional right-of-way (easement) that was not identified as already being impacted per the U.S. 285 environmental assessment in 2002, and costs were in the $6.5 million to $7.5 million range.”

As a result, CDOT recently halted progress on the project and instead funneled funding into designing an interchange that will cost an estimated $30 million to construct, including the cost of widening U.S. 285 to accommodate the interchange. While the department’s FASTER Safety program is funding the design of the interchange, funding sources for its construction haven’t yet been identified.

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By Sal Christ
Tuesday, October 3, 2017 at 5:55 pm

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