An article in the May issue of The New Falcon Herald stated that the Colorado Department of Transportation had changed its plans to widen Highway 24 from four lanes to six lanes. The NFH contacted CDOT, and Amber Shipley, communications manager, said it isn’t true; the plans are still four lanes from Garrett Road to Woodmen Road. She referred me to Andy Stecklein, the CDOT resident engineer for design.
Stecklein said he met one-on-one with Jim Ozburn, owner of the Falcon Food Store, and discussed the plans. Stecklein said they discussed a future six-lane highway but the current design is only for four lanes. “I explained that this project (the four-lane highway) is being rolled out in the design phase and won’t start until the summer of 2027,” he said. “The project will add one new lane in each direction.”
A long-range plan is to widen Highway 24 to six lanes but that is far into the future, Stecklein said. “There is no timeline for that project and no funding for it,” he said. “The current projections are through 2045.”
For now, the plans are confirmed: four lanes from Garrett Road to Woodmen Road, with construction starting in 2027.
According to the CDOT website, they conducted a PEL (planning and environmental linkages) study from April 2016 through March 2018 to “examine conditions and anticipated problem areas along the U.S. 24 corridor.” That study involved many county departments, along with public meetings, Stecklein said. The study prioritized the sections of the highway that should be initially addressed, and Garrett Road to Woodmen Road needed the most attention because of the increasing traffic.
For more information on the PEL study, check out these links to the CDOT website:
https://www.codot.gov/projects/us24corridorelpaso/design
