I-25 speed limit through town going up Sunday

Drivers, start your engines! The speed limit on Interstate 25 through Colorado Springs will be raised Sunday.

Highway crews will begin replacing 55 mph speed signs with 65 mph signs beginning at 8 a.m.

The first sign allowing the higher speed will be put up on the right shoulder along northbound I-25 just north of the Nevada Avenue/Tejon Street Interchange.

Crews will then work their way north on the interstate through the city, then come back south and replace signs on that side of the interstate, said Colorado Department of Transportation spokesman Bob Wilson.

The change comes after state traffic engineers staked out traffic this summer with a radar gun and found 85 percent of cars already were going 69 mph - 14 mph over the speed limit.

That finding, plus a decrease in accidents since the COSMIX renovation of I-25, convinced engineers it would be safe to bump the 55 mph speed limit to 65 mph between Briargate Parkway and the South Nevada Avenue/Tejon Street exit.

The Colorado Department of Transportation tries to adhere to a national standard that sets speed limits at the speed at which 85 percent of vehicles travel, Wilson said.

He said that reduces conflicts and accidents caused by extreme discrepancies in speed.

Although a majority of motorists were actually driving closer to 70 mph than 65, Wilson said CDOT has a policy of setting a maximum speed limit of 65 mph through an urban area, no matter how fast traffic might be moving.

The current 75 mph speed limit north of Briargate and the 65 mph speed limit south of Nevada/Tejon to Academy Boulevard will remain the same.

The change in the speed limit was actually announced in early December, but the holidays and the need to make new signs delayed implementation of the higher speed, Wilson said.

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Contact the writer: 636-0197 or bill.mckeown@gazette.com