Like many commuters, Bob Storch knows a few shortcuts to take if his drive down Interstate 25 to work gets bogged down in traffic. A south Denver resident who works in the Inverness Park, Storch normally gets on Interstate 225 near home, goes west to I-25 and takes that south to County Line Road.
“On a good day, it would take me 10 minutes. On a bad day, 20,” Storch said. “Before, I could get off at Orchard or Arapahoe (roads) and work my way down if there was a backup.”
Since crews began work to replace the functionally obsolete and make many other improvements to the busy area around that highway interchange, Storch doesn’t need his shortcuts anymore.
“It doesn’t impact my commute because I just stopped taking the highway,” Storch said of the roughly two-year, project that got underway in May. “Itap just so much easier.”
He’s not alone. The most disruptive work has taken place overnight or on weekends, but many who work and live nearby say that there are enough daily complications that they avoid the interchange.
David Gardner, of Aurora, said he visits the area a two or three times weekly. He noticed that when lanes are realigned to accommodate work, it makes some drivers nervous, compounding traffic problems.
“Rush hour can be extremely bad — worse than a regular rush hour, so thatap stressful for everybody,” Gardner said. “It gets bad a lunch hour, even in the middle of the day. It’s a challenge.”
Gardner said that if he can see traffic backing up on Arapahoe, he will use side streets to go north to Orchard Road and get on I-25 there, even if his destination is to the south.
Officials with the and contractor held a barbecue last week to thank residents and business owners for their patience through the first leg of the project, which is expected to stretch into summer 2018. They have been working with officials from Greenwood Village, Centennial, Arapahoe County and local homeowners and business association to spread news about lane closures and other impacts and do what they can to make things smoother.
CDOT Project Engineer Telecia McCline said officials have been working out of traffic control operations center in Greenwood Village to change the timing on lights on Arapahoe west of the highway help smooth out congestion as best as possible.
“We’ve been able to address signal timing based on what we’re seeing on the road,” she said.
To date, crews have demolished the eastern third of the I-25 bridge, added a third left-turn lane at the end of the southbound off-ramp, started extensive utilities relocation work and set the girders for part of the new bridge. A second full closure of Arapahoe Road under the bridge (all on-ramps will remain open) is planned to begin late in the evening of Friday, Sept. 23 and last through the early morning of Monday, Sept. 26 while crews demolish the middle portion of the bridge. The timing of that work is weather and schedule-dependent.
Rafael Vargas is the manager of the El Tapatio restaurant at the corner of Arapahoe and South Boston Street. He said officials have communicated and worked closely with the restaurant to mitigate impacts, but lane and road closures have disrupted access to the parking lot and led the business to offer 20 percent discounts certain days to show appreciation to customers who work around the obstacles. Vargas said the restaurant might offer discounts again or lock up early during the upcoming Arapahoe closure.
“I think, in the long run, itap going to be better for us. The access is going to be better,” he said. “But right now, we’re going to suffer a little bit.”
Keep up with the I-25 Arapahoe Interchange project online at or via the project hotline at 720-580-2525. You can subscribe for project updates by emailing dot_i25arapahoe@state.co.us.
