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I-25 South Gap Project: Monument To Castle Rock

Transportation

Closing the Gap on Colorado's busiest interstate.

For years, the 18-mile stretch of I-25 between Monument and Castle Rock was the only four-lane section left between Denver and Colorado Springs — a congested, crash-prone bottleneck known simply as “the Gap.” CDOT’s $350 million I-25 South Gap Project, delivered through the CM/GC method with Kraemer North America, widened the interstate to three lanes in each direction with a new express lane, reconstructed five bridges, extended ramps, built five wildlife crossings to reduce animal-vehicle collisions, and placed a new pavement overlay along the full length of the corridor. Construction ran from 2018 through 2022.

Partnering with Rocksol Consulting Group, Vivid Engineering provided owner’s acceptance inspection and materials testing for CDOT on the project. Vivid inspectors and technicians covered drainage features, retaining walls, bridge structures — including caisson and bedrock observations at the new bridge foundations — and pavements, along with test pits and DCP testing to confirm subgrade conditions, verifying that the work met CDOT’s standards on one of the most heavily traveled corridors in the state.

Project Details

  • Client

    Rocksol Consulting Group

  • Location

    I-25, Monument to Castle Rock – Douglas & El Paso Counties, CO

  • Project Value

    $350 million

  • Timeline

    Construction 2018 – 2022

  • Sector

    Transportation

  • Services

    Construction Inspection & Testing

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    Military Access, Mobility & Safety Improvement Project

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    Every year, millions of visitors funnel through downtown Estes Park on their way to Rocky Mountain National Park — and for decades, its two-way downtown streets could not keep up. The $42 million Downtown Estes Loop, administered by FHWA's Central Federal Lands Highway Division in partnership with CDOT and the Town of Estes Park, converted Elkhorn Avenue (US 36), Moraine Avenue, and Riverside Drive into a one-way couplet. The project built a new roundabout at Moraine and West Riverside, replaced the bridge over the Big Thompson River connecting East and West Riverside Drives, and delivered expanded stormwater infrastructure, floodplain mitigation, and new sidewalks and trails through the heart of downtown.<br /> <br /> Working for Flatiron, Vivid Engineering Group provided construction inspection plus field and laboratory materials testing of soils, aggregates, concrete, and asphalt across 21 months of construction, from January 2023 to October 2024. Building a federal-aid project through an operating tourist downtown meant compressed winter work windows and some of the toughest environmental restrictions on any Colorado project — with the Big Thompson River flowing directly through the work zone. Vivid's inspectors and technicians kept quality verification moving on the contractor's schedule, with samples run through our AASHTO-accredited Colorado laboratories, so that the Loop opened to traffic ahead of the next summer season.

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    CO 119 Safety, Mobility & Bikeway Project

    CO 119 (Diagonal Highway), Foothills Parkway in Boulder to Hover Street in Longmont

    CO 119 — the Diagonal Highway — is Boulder County's busiest commuter corridor, linking Boulder and Longmont across 10 miles of open farmland and a growing string of intersections. CDOT's $165 million CO 119 Safety, Mobility & Bikeway Project, delivered in two construction packages with Kraemer North America and funded by CDOT, RTD, Boulder County, and a 2023 federal RAISE grant, is reshaping the corridor from Foothills Parkway to Hover Street. The project adds a separated commuter bikeway running the length of the highway, with four underpasses at CO 119, Niwot Road, CO 52, and Jay Road and an overpass at 63rd Street; new Bus Rapid Transit infrastructure and Park-n-Ride facilities; a reconfigured CO 52 intersection; and safety improvements at intersections along the route. Construction began in September 2024, with completion expected in spring 2027 — all while the highway stays open to the tens of thousands of commuters who depend on it every day.<br /> <br /> Vivid Engineering Group provides field and laboratory materials testing across both construction packages, working alongside Kraemer and CDOT Region 4. Our technicians sample and test soils, aggregate base course, concrete paving (PCCP), structural concrete for bridge decks, caissons, and drainage structures, and asphalt, performing CDOT owner acceptance sampling and testing to verify that every material placed meets specification, with samples run through Vivid's AASHTO-accredited Colorado laboratories. On site since 2024, the team has supported early-morning fast-track paving pours, bridge deck placements, caisson pours, and embankment work — keeping acceptance testing and documentation moving at the pace of one of the fastest-moving corridor projects in the state.

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