Rocky Picture Show: After 25 Years CDOT Produces a Beautiful Ride Through the State's Terrain

This article describes efforts to improve an 11.6-mile stretch of U.S. 285 that winds through the Colorado Rocky Mountain foothills southwest of Denver. Concerns were first raised in the 1970s about the need for a better roadway, but work did not begin until 1991. It was completed in five phases over some 13 years, and finally finished in 2003. The project involved moving more than 500,000 cubic yards of material and replacing an accident-prone intersection with a 230-foot steel-girder flyover bridge with the tightest curve radius of any such bridge in Colorado. Each phase of the project offered similar challenges, which are described here. Traffic volumes tripled from 10,000 a day in 1991 to nearly 30,000 in 2003.