About 30 percent of the $104 million interchange at Woodmen Road and Academy Boulevard was paid for using PPRTA tax revenue.
Ever wonder when Centennial Boulevard will be finished south from Fillmore Street, linking it to Interstate 25 at Fontanero?
Maybe you’ve wanted Old Ranch Road widened at Kettle Creek. Or you want West Colorado Avenue and South 8th Street rebuilt with sidewalks, curbs, gutters and bike lanes.
Those projects, and dozens more, are on the city’s wish list and they will be prioritized by the Colorado Springs City Council at its Feb. 28 meeting.
You can check out the list . It is item 4-A-3 on the agenda and starts on page 26.
Make your priorities known by contacting your Council rep.
Then, in November, you’ll get more input when transportation officials ask voters to agree to pay for them all.
The list includes projects scattered around Colorado Springs and lumped in five categories: expansion/enhancement; modernization/safety; non-motorized; preservation/restoration; and transit.
Here's how the Proby Parkway interchange looks from GoogleEarth.
Each project is graded and divided into the “A” and “B” categories. There are about 50 projects on the “A” list.
Ranking the projects is a complicated process and required balancing lots of demands, safety questions and funding considerations.
Take Centennial’s expansion. It’s been planned since the 1980s as Mountain Shadows and Peregrine developed and the high-tech industry boomed along the Garden of the Gods Road corridor. Centennial was to be the shortcut that took pressure off I-25.
Of course, the high-tech corridor looks more like death row now. But plans for a Veteran’s Administration clinic at Centennial and Fillmore and other developments are putting new pressure on the city to finish the boulevard.
The city would like to coordinate it with the planned reconstruction of the Fillmore-I-25 interchange, which the state Department of Transportation hopes to complete using a $10 million federal grant.
“The problem is it needs to be completed with local money,” said Kathleen Krager, senior city traffic engineer. “We need $9 million. It’s on the A list of projects.”
The question is how to come up with the money.
Since 2004, a voter-approved one-cent sales tax has generated about $60 million a year for road construction, maintenance, sidewalks, curbs and gutters and bus service. The tax revenue is administered by the Pikes Peak Rural Transportation Authority.
But that tax is expiring in 2014 and without a source of revenue, the wish list will remain just that — wishes.
“If we have funding, the Centennial project would be built, starting in 2015,” Krager said.
Faithful Side Streets readers — both of you — know the value of the tax. Often I’ve written about projects.
And when I studied the new list, I was amazed at the needs that still exist across the community.
Take a look and let the city know your priorities.
Then, in November, tell them again!
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‘PPRTA’ SPELLS NEW ROADS, BRIDGES, SIDEWALKS is a post from: Side Streets