Month-long Highway Closure near Florence

May 14, 2013 - Southeastern Colorado/CDOT Region 2 - FREMONT COUNTY – The Colorado Department of Transportation (CDOT) is closing State Highway 120 to through traffic for one month, allowing road widening work to take place as part of the construction of the new Arkansas River/Union Pacific Railroad Bridge in Portland.

Beginning on Thursday, May 16, and continuing through Sunday, June 16, SH 120 will be closed between the Arkansas River and L Street. Access continues between the SH 115 junction and the Arkansas River and for vehicles providing deliveries to and from the cement plant in Portland. All other traffic will need to detour around this area via SH 115 and U.S. 50. Local access also will be available by using L Street in Penrose (see map below).

“We have some remaining bridge work to complete but the Union Pacific Railroad needs to reset its signal equipment through there and we can’t work while that’s taking place,” said CDOT Project Engineer Rod Abbott. “It was decided to finish up the bridge approaches while we wait for the UP to complete their project.”

The $3.8 million project is scheduled for completion in July 2013.

CDOT is replacing the poor, functionally obsolete, one-lane, 86-year-old bridge with a two-lane structure that includes shoulders and wider bridge approaches. Reconstructing bridges on the state highway system allows CDOT to provide safer and more efficient travel for drivers.

Traffic information about this or other CDOT projects is on the cotrip.org website, by calling 511 or via subscription e-mail. To subscribe, please visit www.coloradodot.info and click on the cell-phone icon in the upper right-hand corner. The link takes you to a list of items you can subscribe to, including Southeast Colorado.