Briargate, Powers intersection rated as city's most dangerous

The intersection at Briargate Parkway and Powers Boulevard is the city’s most dangerous, according to data released Tuesday.

The intersection, which ranked fourth most hazardous in 2006, has since seen volumes grow by 23 percent to 28,300 vehicles a day.

But the chief reason it ranked first was a traffic fatality occurred there, the only fatality in 2007 at any of the 67 intersections ranked by city engineering officials.

Woodmen Road and Interstate 25, with 151,500 vehicles a day, topped the list of most dangerous highway interchanges in Colorado Springs, repeating its first-place finish from the previous year.

No fatalities were marked at the top 10 interchanges, and injuries fell from 71 in 2006 to 23 last year.

Likewise, injuries at the city’s worst intersections dropped from 70 in 2006 to 46 last year.

The city ranks highway interchanges and city intersections annually based on injuries/fatalities, volume and crashes, so engineers can spot trends and devise strategies to reduce the hazards.

“All intersections must be driven with care,” said traffic engineering division manager Scott Logan. “The reason why we do this is to make people more aware but also for us to look at ways to improve conditions.”

Possible actions include targeted enforcement, raising public awareness, improving signs, altering design or changing traffic signals, he said.

Some of the findings are surprising, such as the drop from 6th in 2006 to 24th last year of Austin Bluffs Parkway and Union Boulevard.

That’s the site of a major overpass project. Traffic lanes and signals have been reconfigured; yet the intersection carried 85,500 vehicles a day last year, 1,000 more than in 2006.

Logan couldn’t explain the drop but noted that other intersections in the midst of construction don’t always score safer ratings.

Seven of the worst 10 in 2007 are located in fast-growing northeast Colorado Springs, where surging traffic volumes can play a role in undermining traffic safety. Four of the seven are on Powers.

“What we saw last year was a 7 percent increase in traffic on Powers,” Logan said. “That’s high growth when you consider average increase in traffic (citywide) was 1 to 1½ percent.”

He also said traffic volumes declined on Academy by 3 percent to 4 percent as big-box stores and other shops shuttled to Powers.

“It’s consistent with what’s been reported before about what’s happening on Powers and Academy,” he said.

The busiest intersection was Constitution Avenue and Powers, with 101,000 vehicles. It ranked 35th most dangerous in 2006 but slid to 54th in 2007. Logan wasn’t sure why, but guessed the city has done a good job of coordinating traffic signals, and traffic doesn’t move as fast as it does at intersections farther north.

“Powers and Barnes (Road) seems to be one where speeds start picking up,” he said.

The city’s most dangerous intersection is north of there. Logan said city officials must work with the Colorado Department of Transportation on changes, because the state now is in charge of Powers under a recently enacted agreement.

He said the city might suggest lowering speeds from 55 mph on Powers and 45 mph on Briargate Parkway or install flashing lights to warn that traffic signals will soon change to red.

Logan said past changes taken in response to the data have paid off with problem intersections slipping down or off the list.

Data suggests it’s safer to travel I-25 than some city intersections. All 10 most dangerous highway interchanges scored significantly lower than city intersections and lower than the top 10 highway spots scored in 2006.

There were 402 crashes at the 10 interchanges in 2006, but only 366 at the 10 worst spots last year.

In the city, crashes also fell, from 169 at the worst 10 intersections in 2006 to 154 in 2007.

The safety factor is tied to the completion of COSMIX, the years-long widening and improvement of I-25, said Colorado Department of Transportation spokesman Bob Wilson.

Nine of the 10 highway interchanges on the 2007 list are on I-25, many of them redesigned and reconstructed during the project.

“These ratings are very helpful because they give us a big picture view of where improvements need to be made and where improvements have been made and are working,” he said. “This is something that’s ongoing. It never ends. If there is a location that sees a jump in accident rates, we’re consistently checking to see if there’s something else that needs to be done.”