I-25 Traffic Headache Stemmed From Unpainted Stripes On Off Ramps
DOUGLAS COUNTY, Colo. (CBS4) - A construction delay snarled northbound traffic on Interstate 25 on Monday morning, and another similar mishap could mean hefty fines for contractors.
Crews worked in predawn hours on a highway-widening project, but they were nearly two hours late reopening lanes between Lincoln Avenue and County Line Road. As work crept into rush hour traffic, traffic crawled forward in one lane.
"It took me about an hour and a half when it usually takes me about a half an hour," commuter Mike Williams said. "I haven't even had it that bad when it's a blizzard."
The construction, which will add a fourth lane to north and southbound travel, was scheduled to end at 5:30 a.m.
"There were some delays that happened with how we got the work done," Amy Ford of the Colorado Department of Transportation said. "As a result, what we were doing at the very end there was actually repainting the stripes on the off ramps. We were not able to open the roads under conditions where they weren't finished."
The $32 million project will mean more frequent overnight lane closures through June 2016.
"We'll analyze what went wrong," Ford said, "and make sure that it doesn't happen again."
She said the contractor's contract allows for one major mistake like Monday's.
"They have a one-time grace period to really make a mistake like this," Ford said. "After that, there are serious penalties. It's fair to say they hope to never trigger that. Unfortunately, in this situation they did."
