Westbound US 6 off-ramp to Lowell/Perry to remain open following completion of US 6 Bridges Design Build Project

The surveys were conducted at the conclusion of an outreach process that began in 2014 to help people understand the issues at hand.

“We wanted to hear from the local community to get a better understanding of what this ramp means to them,” said Amy Ford, CDOT Communications Director. “What we learned is that this off-ramp is used often and loved by many residents in the area and, ultimately, they want it left open.”

To conduct these surveys, CDOT launched an online questionnaire, welcomed feedback through the project information hotline and met with Registered Neighborhood Organization leaders and community members. A door-to-door survey was also conducted with residents living closest to this off-ramp.

Even though survey results show 45 percent of the respondents living near the off-ramp prefer to see it closed, this number dropped significantly the further away from the ramp the respondents lived. Further away from the off-ramp only about 19 percent of respondents wanted to close the ramp. Overall, out of 320 total responses, about 73 percent of respondents favored leaving the ramp open permanently.

As a result, CDOT has decided to leave the ramp open.

“We made the determination that, while it would make for a better flowing US 6 to close the ramp permanently, it does not need to close as part of this project,” said Kevin Sullivan, CDOT Project Director. “The community came back to us and made their wishes clear and, fortunately, we are in a position to be able to accommodate them.”

Even though the off-ramp will remain open at the end of the project, a long-term closure of this off-ramp will be needed for construction purposes when westbound US 6 traffic is shifted to the south side of the highway. This shift will preclude traffic from using the westbound off-ramp to Lowell/Perry. This traffic shift is currently slated to occur in late May and traffic will remain in that alignment for about six months while work is done on the north side of the highway. This work will include drainage line installation, construction of retaining walls and initial work on the collector-distributor lanes that will feed traffic from I-25 onto westbound US 6.

While the off-ramp is closed for construction, motorists will need to use Federal or Sheridan boulevards to access their neighborhood.

The $98 million US 6 Bridges Design-Build Project will replace six obsolete bridges on US 6 between Knox Court and I-25, improve traffic movements in the I-25 and US 6 interchange and enhance driver safety by eliminating several traffic weave movements along US 6 between Federal Boulevard and I-25. Substantial project completion is planned for August 2015.

For updated project information, visit http://www.coloradodot.info/projects/US6Bridges, call 720-881-5540 or email [email protected]

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