(COLORADO SPRINGS) — The City of Colorado Springs received two federal grants to support two key infrastructure projects in the community.
On Thursday, Aug. 8, the city announced it received two awards for the U.S Highway 24/Peterson Road Interchange — also known as the North Gate to Peterson Space Force Base — and Multimodal Improvements in Academy Boulevard Bridge.
The U.S HWY 24 project received a $10.7 million grant from the Defense Community Infrastructure Program. The overall project is $15.3 million in total.
“These interchange improvements would improve safety, traffic capacity, and bring multiple options to get folks into Peterson Space Force Base more efficiently and just have other modes to get in there,” said City Engineer and Deputy Director of Public Works Director Gayle Sturdivant.
Sturdivant said construction will begin sooner than later and are anticipating construction to begin this time this year or sooner. The construction comes after the Space Force Base said they were concerned with the access and getting in and out of the installation according to Sturdivant.
The Academy Boulevard Bridge Improvements project received a grant of $750,000 from the Bridge Investment Program from the U.S. Department of Transportation. According to Sturdivant, the grant had three different categories, and the one the city received files under the planning category.
“This is an important way for us to be able to demonstrate to the Federal Highway Administration that we have a project that we can plan appropriately and demonstrate the need to get federal funding to come and do bridge replacements.”
That grant was also matched by the City’s Bridge Fund and added $750,000 for a total of $1.5 million.
The bridge — located near Citadel Mall — was originally made up of two bridges and was built in 1965 and later combined into one bridge nine years later. Sturdivant says the bridge has been moving toward a “poor state of condition.”
“Academy and Platte are two of our busiest corridors in our entire community,” said Sturdivant. “In addition to replacing that important piece of infrastructure, it gives us the ability to address safety concerns we have in that intersection area.”
The bridge at Platte Avenue has areas where it has non-traditional spacing that has led to differential movement and areas where it’s exposed to corrosion. Sturdivant added they are proactively working through the planning process to be able to fund the replacement. Construction would not start for another three to five years, only if the city is successful in securing the funds according to Sturdivant.
Currently, Sturdivant said they are expecting the project to cost $42 million.
