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Drivers Get Some Relief At I-225 And East Colfax Avenue

AURORA, Colo. (CBS4) - Anyone who drives around the former Fitzsimons Medical Campus in Aurora knows traffic there can be a mess, but finally there will be a little relief.

A new set of ramps opened Monday along Interstate 225 near East Colfax Avenue.

The interchange at I-225 and Colfax was only designed to handle 4,000 cars a day. But with the addition of the University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus and The Children's Hospital -- and the nearly 20,000 people who work there -- some 58,000 vehicles have been trying to squeeze through. That's why the new set of ramps that take commuters directly to 17th Place were built.

City, state and federal officials attended a ribbon cutting for the new $43 million reconstruction Monday morning.

Traffic heading to the hospitals will no longer have to use a busy Colfax Avenue, making for an easier drive for all commuters.

The road construction may be finished but work on the campus is not. A new Veterans Administration hospital is now being built, and projections call for the number of employees in that one square mile of land to more than double in the coming years.

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