LITTLETON, Colo. — A major construction project in the South Metro recently reached its halfway mark. Eventually, all of the left turn arrows from one of Littleton's busiest intersections will be removed.
Driving on Santa Fe through the city, drivers are guaranteed to see a lot of cones, construction and congestion.
Denver7's South Metro reporter Danielle Kreutter has more on this construction project in the video below:
"About 90,000 cars a day, and that's 60,000 on Santa Fe, and then an additional 30,000 on Mineral Avenue," explained Matthew Matuszewski, Capital Improvement Program Manager for the City of Littleton Engineering Department.
The intersection of Mineral & Santa Fe has also become a high incident intersection. The city worked with the Colorado Department of Transportation to come up with a plan to make the intersection safer and more efficient.
According to the city, 183 crashes happened at that intersection between 2021-2025. Of those crashes, 28 involved serious injuries and one death. It was the most number of crashes at any intersection in the city during that time period.
"A lot of times you're going to see highest incidents with that left turn movement, people crossing other directions of travel, and that's going to be the biggest one," said Matuszewski.
At the completion of the project, there will be no options to turn left at Santa Fe & Mineral.
Instead drivers will use what's called a "quadrant road." Depending on which direction the drivers are going, they will be diverted through the quadrant road, through a round about, to then eventually make a left turn without having it occur in the busy intersection.
"Let's say you were coming from the South [on Sante Fe]. You're going to turn left on Nichols Avenue, then you're going to go around the roundabout here. You're going to go north on Flat River Parkway, and then you'll turn left on Mineral Avenue," Matuszewski explained the new orientation once drivers can no longer turn left at Mineral off of Sante Fe.
"Is that going to take more time?" asked Denver7's South Metro Reporter Danielle Kreutter.
"That's a great question. Those individual turn movements may take more time once you actually get to the intersection. However, we believe that the overall system will see up to 50% reduction in time," said Matuszewski.
He said that number was confirmed through traffic studies and simulations.
The studies estimate drivers heading westbound on Mineral will experience up to 30% reduction in travel time during the evening peak hours. Eastbound Mineral drivers will see an estimated 50% reduction in travel time during the morning peak hours.
Northbound Santa Fe drivers will experience up to 15% reduction in travel time during the morning peak hours, according to the city, while Southbound Santa Fe drivers will experience up to 50% reduction in travel time during the evening rush hour.
The city is sharing videos that walk drivers through how the new orientation will work.
Construction is expected to wrap up in 2027. The total project cost is estimated to be $21.4 million. After federal grants and developer contributions, the City of Littleton contributed $2.8 million of the total.
