The Colorado Department of Transportation (CDOT) is getting ready to move all traffic on the current 4th Street Bridge onto the new westbound structure by 7 a.m. on Friday, April 16.

Drivers should expect occasional traffic stops and delays up to 10 minutes through the area on Thursday as preparations are made for the realignment.

CDOT Media Advisory

4th Street Bridge Trail closure begins this week

March 29, 2010 – ADVISORY – Southeastern Colorado/CDOT Region 2 – PUEBLO – The Colorado Department of Transportation is closing the Arkansas River Trail, under the 4th Street Bridge (State Highway 96), beginning on Thursday, April 1.

Safety considerations will not allow the path to remain open as demolition work begins on the old bridge structure.

The trail will be closed around-the-clock, including weekends. A signed detour will be place while the trail is closed. It is scheduled to reopen on June 1, 2010.

Pueblo County commissioners say they will have the $3.5 million promised for a Pueblo West roads project from proceeds of a 2006 ballot measure that allowed the county to keep tax revenue surpassing regular spending limits.

The Pueblo Chieftain reports that some Pueblo West board members would like more certainty about $3.5 million the county has promised the district for a roads project.

Pueblo’s new Fourth Street Bridge project has hit its halfway point, a nearly four-year, $27.7 million construction job that will give Colorado 96 a graceful twin span crossing of the extensive Pueblo rail yard and the Arkansas River.

The concrete spans are being built with an unusual method called balanced cantilever construction. The construction takes place atop the structure itself via traveling forms that gradually extend out from either side of the bridge piers. It successfully addressed some challenging constructability problems. These twin 1,137-foot spans are being built over a busy operating rail yard – 28 active tracks are under the bridge including two Union Pacific Railroad mainlines and a Burlington Northern Santa Fe Railway mainline.

The overhead slip forms minimize the need for ground equipment and staging underneath the structure. As a result, contactor Flatiron Constructors of Longmont and FIGG Bridge Design’s Denver office are able to build these artistic spans without requiring any track closures below.

Pueblo drivers take note – the Fourth Street bridge will be slimmed down today to just one lane each way, so Colorado Department of Transportation planners are advising drivers to consider alternate routes over the Arkansas River through Nov. 25, the Pueblo Chieftain reports.

Construction crews are beginning more extensive work on the new bridge this week and will be narrowing the traffic flow on the existing span.

Essentially, the bridge will handle only one lane of traffic in each direction and the maximum speed limit will be 25 mph. Those lane limits will be in place through November.

The Colorado Department of Transportation (CDOT) is preparing a draft environmental impact statement (DEIS) for the U.S. 50 corridor from Pueblo to the Kansas state line, reports the Lamar Ledger.

The document provides a description of the proposed highway improvements and the anticipated effects associated with each alternative. Publishing this document is part of the process that enables highway projects to be eligible for federal funding. The National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) requires agencies to prepare environmental impact statements for major actions that affect the quality of the human and natural environment.