Southbound on I-25
This page will take you southbound on I-25 through the COSMIX project in Colorado Springs. The construction zone consists of 12 miles of the interstate. Most of the interstate through here has already been widedned, but a few exits will be redone. The Bijou Street interchange will be redone, as well as the Nevada Avenue, Corporate Centre Drive, and the Rockrimmon Road interchanges. The last three mentioned will be combined into one interchange.
Video Drive-Through
Taken 9/13/06
0:00 Academy Boulevard
0:09 Entering COSMIX Zone 2
0:20 Shifting to the left
0:31 Bouncy, bouncy!
0:59 Passing by heavy equipment working hard.
1:35 Woodmen Road
2:00 Unmarked trooper cuts me off. Is he on his cell phone? :)
2:12 Typical slowdown approaching the Woodmen merge
3:25 Lane Shift to the right onto the new cement.
4:30 The Nevada/Corp Centre/Rockrimmon complex comes into view
4:40 The former Corporate Centre Drive exit point
4:47 Lotsa work in the median today.
4:55 The temporary North Nevada Avenue offramp.
5:03 At the future intersection of the southbound exit, Nevada Ave (to the left) and Corporate Centre Drive (to the right)
5:07 Going over Monument Creek.
5:25 Where the Rockrimmon Boulevard intersection with the C/D road will be.
5:27 Climbing to the new bridge over Mark Dabling and the railroad tracks.
5:34 New bridge over Mark Dabling and the railroad tracks.
5:45 Entering the "Rockrimmon Curve"
6:00 "Merging" back onto the mainline 25 cement
6:02 Temporary Rockrimmon merge from the frontage road.
6:31 Northbound traffic joins us on the new cement/west side of the GoG bridge.
6:37 Temporary Garden of the Gods Road (Westbound access only) exit.
6:42 NB Traffic is thick because of a lack of N. Nevada merge lane. See that page for more info.
6:49 Garden of the Gods Road
6:54 Hang on!
7:03 Three lane goodness! Horray!
7:52 Ellston Street Bridge
7:53 BUSTED! Haha!
8:03 r-dub almost BUSTED by the officer to the right.
8:25 Fillmore Street
8:58 Onto previously reconstructed segment, end of COSMIX Zone 1
You can view the last video of this drive on my YouTube page.
0:05 Yes, this newer cement is really this bumpy.
0:18 Fontanero Street
0:32 Bogey off the starboard bow, approaching fast!
0:35 Hmmm, maybe the left lane isn't the best spot to be.
0:48 First glimpse of downtown from the I.
1:02 Uintah Street
2:03 Bijou Street
2:37 Colorado Avenue
2:51 Midland Trail Bridge (see Colorado Ave page for info)
3:07 Cimarron Street and the southern end of COSMIX.
Still Pictures
Clicking on thumbnails will show you the full-sized picture in a pop-up window. All original pictures were taken in April 2005. Be sure to check out each exit's page as well! There's more in-depth pictures of each exit's transformations on them!
Exit 150 - Spur SH 83/Academy Boulevard
Original shot
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Here's the start of the COSMIX project. This sign gantry has been empty since mid-2004.
Original shot
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This is a great shot of Pikes Peak from the Academy exit. Sorry about the sun in the shot.
Original shot
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This is where, presumably, the third lane will join the interstate once the project is complete.
Exit 149 - Woodmen Road
From 2000 to 2004, this exit was reconstructed. Midway through the construction, the original contractor filed for bankruptcy and stopped working on the project. A new contractor was brought in to finish up the project. Because of this, little things fell through the cracks. This leads to a lot of good "oops" pictures here.
Original shot
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This'll require a lot of grading to widen through here.
Original shot
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A little closer to the interchange now. Note the use of the "temporary" jersey barriers.
Original shot
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Just after the bridge over Woodmen Road. Note the asphalt to the left of the mainline cement.
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Exit 148A - Bus 25/US 85 (unsigned)/Nevada Avenue :: Exit 148B - Corporate Centre Drive
The intitial design has Nevada exiting from the left of the interstate while Corporate Centre exits from the right. There's a big weaving problem before these exits. Traffic merging from Woodmen often exits at Nevada, causing the weave. These two exits, along with Rockrimmon, will be combined into one exit through the course of the project.
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Original shot
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Quickly after Corporate Centre lies the Nevada exit. The lane on the right is the Corp Centre merge lane.
Original shot
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This shot shows how close these two exits are to each other. This scene will change dramatically soon.
Exit 147 - Rockrimmon Boulevard
The next interchange will not exist once the COSMIX project is complete. To reach Rockrimmon, you will exit at Nevada and use Collector/Distributor lanes. Additional pictures can be found on the Rockrimmon page.
Original shot
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Here's the original Rockrimmon exit. Exiting here is a 90 degree turn that immediately drops to an intersection.
Exit 146 - Garden of the Gods Road
This interchange was redone in the late '80's. Even then the designers knew that the interstate would have to be widened. All that needs to be done here is a little median paving and repainting of the lines and bridge structure.
Original shot
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Approaching Garden of the Gods. The bluff to the right means the I will be realigned through here.
Original shot
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Above Garden of the Gods road. This bridge is ready for the third lane in each direction.
Ellston Street Bridge
This bridge is located between Garden of the Gods and Fillmore. It's going to need to be replaced or rehabbed to accomodate three lanes. Pictures of the underside of the bridge are located on the Ellston Bridge Page.
Original shot
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Shoulders? We don't need no stinkin' shoulders!
Exit 145 - SH 38/Fillmore Street
This exit was the northern point of the "safetyfying" project that was completed in 2003. Until the Bijou exit, the interstate is two lanes plus an auxillary lane in each direction. Between the exits, the shoulders are wide enough to handle a new auxillary lane. Then the current auxillary lane will be a full fledged travel lane.
Original shot
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Look closely to the right of the gore point sign. Here's the world-famous upside-down traffic light ...... sign.
Original shot
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This is a typical view of the newer section of the interstate. Note the wide right shoulder.
Exit 144 - Fontanero Street
This exit is horribly underused, and has been that way since the interstate was built. To the east, Fontanero ends at a city maintenance yard just after the railroad tracks that parallel the interstate. To the west lies a 4 block wide neighborhood. That's all for this exit.
Original shot
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The Fontanero exit. Ooo. Ahh.
Exit 143 - Uintah Street
Original shot
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Typical scene of what I-25 will look like.
Original shot
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Note how the sound wall continues over Uintah Street. Good shot of the downtown skyline, too.
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Exit 142 - Bijou Street
This interchange will be changing substantially. The bridges over the interstate and the railroad tracks will be replaced. This is scheduled to happen in 2007. Useless trivia bit: the interstate is actually lower than the level of Monument creek, which runs just to the west. During times of heavy rain, this area has been known to flood. Additional pictures can be found on the Bijou Street page.
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Original shot
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If you look closely, you can see that the arrow was added to the sign after the sign was installed.
Original shot
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I suppose that the interstate could be widened under this bridge, but where's the fun in that?
Original shot
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This curve always causes traffic to slow to about 50. Besides the fact we're going uphill, I'm not sure why.
Colorado Avenue Bridge
This bridge is definitely not up to current interstate standards, but since it is already six lanes wide, it's not going to be repaired in the COSMIX project... I think.
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Exit 141 - US 24 West/Cimarron Street
This interchange was originally planned to be replaced with the COSMIX project. In order to keep the project under budjet, planners decided to leave this interchange alone.
Original shot
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Nice and narrow through here. The highway is higher through here due to multiple bridges.
Original shot
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A few years back, CDOT decided to make lane 3 exit only since traffic sometimes backs up onto the interstate.
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- Where to next?
- Retrace your steps Northbound
- COSMIX Home
Disclaimer: This website is not affiliated with the COSMIX Project or the Colorado Department of Transportation. All pictures contained on this site are solely the property of Ryan Wanner unless otherwise specified. Copying/distributing these pictures without my authorization is going to put me in a pretty bad mood, and you don't want to see that, trust me. Linking to this site is more than welcome, but let me know so that I can return the favor. That is all, have a good day, k?--Ryan
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