Scary bridge
One of the main entrances to the downtown core of Colorado Springs is Cimarron Street. This used to carry the designation of US 24 until the early '90's as well. Just after I-25, Cimarron goes over Fountain Creek then curves slightly to the north over some railroad tracks and Conejos Street. This bridge over the tracks has been deteriorating badly for a few years now and has had many detours, closures, and patch jobs done to it. On Wednesday, August 9, 2006, a three foot hole opened up in the deck of the eastbound lanes. Me, being the roadgeek that I am, had to go take a look-see at the damage. What I found may just surprise you. This bridge was the "poster child" for the recent campaign for a RTA Tax to help fix roads. (The tax passed, too.) Unfortunately, this bridge was a secondary project for the tax. Full replacement is still a few years out, provided it doesn't collapse before then...
Update 1: October 11, 2006 City leaders have now determined that this bridge will be torn down and rebuilt starting in early January 2007. Problem is the COSMIX Project is planning on replacing the Bijou Street Interchange and Bridge at the same time. This means that COS will not have any direct downtown access for upwards of 6 months. On top of this, because of the fragility of this structure, engineers have enacted a Max GVWR of 10,000 pounds, a max height of 9 feet, and a max width of 8 feet. These pics can be found below the original pictures.
Our local paper, the Gazette, did a full article on the bridge in Thursday's edition, and here's a map of the bridge and surrounding area.
Bridge of Doom
I'd say drive fast to get over this faster, but the vibrations may be not what this bridge needs.
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After noticing the warning signs from the highway on my way home, I decided to check it out a bit. This was the only pict that really came out this evening.
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Now the next morning, we see that the 5000 lb restriction is still in place. This means that even some large pickups and (dare I say it?) way-too-damn-huge SUV's can't even use this bridge.
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Looking down Cimarron towards the problem bridge, which is in the background. Note that CSPD even placed officers at each end of the bridge to make sure too-heavy vehicles didn't go over the bridge. By the end of the day, the GVWR was raised to 20,000 lbs. Trucks are still discouraged from using the bridge, though.
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Coming up on the bridge from Conejos Street, which runs right next to one of the city's main power plants.
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Right at the edge of the bridge. The railroad tracks here make supports a little spread out.
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Looking at the westernmost support column structure for this bridge.
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The metal roads were installed about a year or so back when chunks of the pillars started falling down. This was the engineer's "stopgap" solution. The real solution--bridge replacement--is still a few years away.
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Looking across the railroad tracks at the easternmost support column structure. Engineers have blamed the deterioration of the bridge on the fact that the south side is higher up (due to the curve in the road) so it is more exposed to the elements. If that's the case, why is the northern side of this bridge in such bad shape, too?
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Another look at the western columns. The railings are handrails for the sidewalk that's on the opposite side of the piers from Conejos.
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A look at the replacement decking on the bridge. This isn't where the decking failed this time: this is from another issue.
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New signs have appeared on the interstate before the Cimarron exit warning that the road east of the interstate is only open to passenger vehicles. These signs are expected to be up for about nine months from October 1, 2006.
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More signage, this time while heading east on Cimarron.
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At the intersection of the northbound 25 offramps and Cimarron, looking east.
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About to run the "is your vehicle safe?" gauntlet.
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Itty bitty opening. Engineers are not fooling around here.
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Now past the gauntlet, we are about to be moved over to the westbound side of the bridge.
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Detouring to the westbound lanes. The westbound lanes are the safest for traffic.
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Approaching the troubled bridge.
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Just before the bridge. As reported earlier, the eastbound lanes developed a hole about 3 feet in diameter. This is what caused this closure. Previously, the EB lanes were closed because chunks of cement were falling off of the pillars below.
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On the bridge.
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Crews have patched one of the expansion joints so that water would stop running below the bridge deck. And I'm not sure what the "A" is for.
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The point of failure for the most current problems. Since the bridge is now slated to be demolished in stages over the next year, the plywood will be the only fix for this hole.
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Bumping over the expansion joint patch.
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Starting to curve back to the eastbound lanes.
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The westbound gauntlet is just as strict as the eastbound gauntlet.
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The warning sign while traveling westbound on Cimarron.
More pics as I see what crews have up their sleeves with this new pseudo-temporary fix!
Section Links
- Various Pictures & Trips
- SH-67
- Off to Denver
- Jonesin' for a Roadtrip #1
- License Plate Renewal 2005
- Scary Bridge
- Garden of the Gods
- SH-16
- SH-83
- Random Shots 1
- Random Shots 2
- Random Shots 3
Disclaimer: I am in no way affiliated with any of the orginizations listed within this site. I'm just a bored roadgeek with way too much time on his hands. All of the picts in this page are mine and mine alone unless otherwise noted. Remember, kids: stealing is bad, mmmm-k? I get quite pissy if things are taken without telling me. I don't like to be pissy. You won't like it either. If you want to link to this page, that's fine. Please shoot me an email beforehand so I can link to your page as well. K? Thanks. --Ryan
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