Rolling cone zones will be the order of the day along westbound U.S. Highway 285 from Santa Fe to Kipling for the next 18 months during the Colorado Department of Transportation project to rebuild the roadway and bridges along the stretch of very busy highway.

“The road won’t be widened nor will there be additional lanes added. This is strictly a project to improve the safety of this stretch of highway,” said Mindy Crane, CDOT spokesperson. “It was necessary because the remaining useful life of most of the pavement was near zero, three bridges needed replacement and several bridges badly needed repairs.”

The transportation adopted the design-build process, meaning the design is done while the project is under construction. The process worked well on the T-Rex project and, on 285, road reconstruction was extended about a mile from Wadsworth to Kipling, wider shoulders were added along portion of the stretch of road and improvements such as an additional left-turn lane was added at Knox Court. The additions were added to the project without increasing the $40.1 million price tag.

“This project is scheduled to last until June 2011,” Crane said. “While there will be lane changes to route the traffic around construction, the plan is to try to keep two lanes open in each direction at all times.”

One facet of the project is widening and replacement of the bridges over 285 at Federal, Wadsworth and Pierce.

Additionally, there will be repairs, including new decks, on most of the other bridges over the stretch of 285.

Another portion of the project will include rebuilding the 285-Wadsworth interchange, which includes adding a third lane northbound and a third lane southbound Wadsworth under U.S. 285.

Phase one is under way and involves some lane changes as work is done to prepare for bridge replacement and median improvements.

Eventually, the project will move into phase two which will move all traffic to the south and phase three will move all traffic to the north.