If you drive each day on Interstate 25 near Surry Ridge here’s some great news, the new frontage road between Castle Pines Parkway and Ridge Gate Parkway is now open. The newly constructed road opened to traffic Friday morning at at 5 a.m. CDOT built the frontage road on the east side of I-25 to eliminate the two outdated interchanges at Surry Ridge and Schweiger and to improve access to the homes on the west side of I-25. Originally built in 1958, the old interchanges had to be closed because they no longer meet federal highway standards.

The new road connects the new Ridge Gate Parkway interchange to Castle Pines Parkway to the south. It will also provide an alternate route for commuters in case there is a crash or closure of I-25 in this area. Another part of the project will add a fourth lane to north and southbound I-25 in the same area. Those lanes will open in mid-September after the highway is striped properly and that will mean there will be four lanes each way from Castle Rock to C-470.

Project Engineer Michael Stanford said the $10.9 million frontage road was a unique project for CDOT in that they got to build a new road from scratch. “You don’t get the opportunity to build virgin alignments often. It’s been great. I’m proud of the project. I think it’s turned out well. The mild winter that we had really helped us to do a lot of the dirt work in the cold winter months allowing us to do the paving work in late spring, early summer.”

The road’s official name is the I-25 frontage road but there is no signage stating that yet. It does geographically lie along Havana Street so it may take that name in the future. Douglas County will officially take over the maintenance of the road. The speed limit is 45 mph but drops to 35 mps at the Lone Tree City Limit.