So how's the state of the roads in south suburbia? The metro area's arteries are among the five most clogged in the nation, it's been reported.
And while major changes are few, the Mile High metropolis keeps growing. The growth has been especially felt down south, where Douglas County has been the fastest-growing county in the US. This growth only compounds the overall traffic problems.
Santa Fe Drive improvements in progress
A dangerous, fatality-ridden stretch of Santa Fe Drive in the south end of Littleton is being improved.
The stretch of road south of Aspen Grove will see a number of improvements:
--Concrete “Type 7” barriers, five feet in height, placed on the sides of the road, 600 feet in length, along Meadowood Mobile Park.
--Walls five feet high and 1000 feet long erected in front of Woolhurst Landing
--Guardrails being installed where retaining walls are not needed.
--Widening and additions of paved medians with warning rumble strips, 12-foot wide shoulders, and decorative lighting.
The $11 million roadwork should be completed by early July. The project is a joint effort between the City of Littleton, Arapahoe County, and the Colorado Department of Transportation (CDOT).
Ultimately, officials would like to see that part of Santa Fe widened to six lanes for maximum safety, but with funding prospects grim, that solution is far away.
C-470 studies options for an overhaul
It doesn't seem so long ago when Governor Lamm did everything he could to block the creation of C-470. And now C-470 is bursting at the seams with traffic. The freeway is now carrying way more traffic than it was designed for and it's only getting worse.
The Colorado Department of Transportation (CDOT) has held Open House hearings to evaluate all the possible solutions and public concerns. The options being considered include adding lanes, as well as toll lanes.
Commuters shouldn't hold their breath, as the solution is going to be several years away.
T-REX to the rescue at the I-25 Belleview exit
A bit of progress was made when that major overhaul of I-25--T-REX--saw a section of tunnel open in early February to ease traffic woes in that part of Arapahoe County.
The tunnel connects southbound I-225 and the Belleview Avenue southbound off ramp. No longer will it feel like a obstacle-course maneuver to try to exit onto Belleview from I-225 by having to cross over to the right side from the left-hand merge lane.
Traffic from I-225 will go under 1-25 and merge from the right-hand side of I-25. Drivers will then be able to easily go onto Belleview or continue south on the freeway. The one-lane exit will be made into two lanes as the project gets completed.
South Santa Fe HOV lanes are dispensable?
HOV (High-Occupancy Vehicle) lanes are an experiment whose benefits are widely questioned. On I-25 there is a 40 percent violation rate of single-occupancy driver violations with weak enforcement, although the fine has gone up from thirty dollars to a hundred.
There are many critics who say such a failure of the HOV lanes should signal an end to the experiment and open up those restricted lanes to everyone again. The same argument is made for South Santa Fe Drive, especially with the added traffic of drivers using Santa Fe to avoid the T-REX messes on I-25.
Intersections in need of reconstruction
A couple of intersections down south are sorely in need of improvement: C-470/Santa Fe Drive and Arapahoe Road/Parker Road.
Unfortunately, the state has made it clear that there is no money available for such upgrades, with funding for roads at an all-time low.
Arapahoe County county commissioners are not willing to roll over and play dead on this matter. The county is forging ahead with lobbying efforts to come up with some creative and innovative funding solutions for these needed projects.
