Improvements to Meridian Road north of Woodmen Road are underway.The project began late August, and the initial phase is scheduled for completion by the end of the year, said Wayne Monson, Meridian Service Metropolitan District manager.”The project is getting to the point of being weather dependent,” Monson said.Paul Danley, engineering division manager at El Paso County Development Services, said, “The project is to add two northbound lanes, which are new lanes, east of the existing lanes.”The plans also include expansion between Woodmen Road and Stapleton Road, he said. The road then transitions near Londonderry Drive.Currently county crews are completing the grading, utility and storm drainage work. When they are finished, the four-lane road will have a depressed median separating the north and southbound lanes. Signals will not be added initially, but installed when signal warrants are met based on the amount of traffic, Danley said.”There is significant growth in the area,” Monson said, “The road is being expanded to accommodate additional traffic.”Intersections along Meridian Road will be improved and paved, Danley said, they will but no additional work will be done to the existing road.”The existing lanes will continue under county maintenance until some point in the future when there is an additional project to expand Meridian further,” he said.Danley said plans to expand Meridian Road south of Woodmen Road have not been approved and are “still in the earlier phases of land-use approval through the county.”The plans should be approved by the end of 2005 with the project scheduled for completion next year, he said.Greg Timm, commercial developer, said the end of the year might also bring plan approval for a retail center.”We’re selling the site to a shopping center, and we expect to close on it at the end of the year. It includes a bank and restaurants,” Timm said. The shopping center is located in an area southwest of Meridian and Woodmen roads.
