Driving You Crazy: Where are the dashed lane lines from 8th Ave. to Kalamath Street?

June from Lakewood writes, “What's driving you crazy? The traffic lane lines are not marked clearly anymore for lanes turning on to Kalamath Street from westbound 8th Avenue. Cars are turning into the wrong lanes and causing a lot of confusion. There used to be lines for each lane but it looks like because the road was re-paved the lines are gone. My hope is that this if fixed ASAP!!! It's a very congested area and truly an accident waiting to happen.”

I have received a significant number of complaint/concern/question emails over the last two weeks about this problem. I know the area well, and it can be tricky to know what lane you should be transitioning to, especially since nearly every driver I see speeds through there.

Before the city repaved that section of 8^th Ave. there were dashed lines that connected 8^th Ave. lanes to southbound Kalamath Street lanes. They were great visual indicators directing drivers into the proper lane. Now the dashed lines are gone. When I went out to look at the roadway, I saw several close calls and one near crash with skidding and honking and screaming.

That was on a Thursday morning. The same day I sent a note asking Denver’s Department of Transportation and Infrastructure (DOTI) why the dashed lines weren’t repainted after the paving project. I didn’t hear anything until over the weekend, some viewers happily said that the dashed lines were back. I eagerly went back to check it out for myself Monday morning and yes, the dashed lines have returned.

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I again reached out on Monday morning to DOTI and was told that the contractor who paved 8^th Ave. did some initial line painting, but part of the painting was done incorrectly. They have since corrected it. So in the time between Thursday at noon when I first took video and first contacted the city when there were no dashed lane lines and Sunday morning when I heard from viewers, the dashed lines were laid down.

Now that the lines are back, traffic seemed to flow much smother now that it did on Thursday without the dashed lane markers. It is still a tricky, spot so heads up and phones down in there.

Denver7 Traffic Expert Jayson Luber says he has been covering Denver-metro traffic since Ben-Hur was driving a chariot. (We believe the actual number is over 25 years.) He's obsessed with letting viewers know what's happening on their drive and the best way to avoid the problems that spring up. Follow him on Facebook, Twitter or Instagram or listen to his award winning Driving You Crazy podcast on any podcast app including iTunes, iHeartRadio, Spotify, Podbean, or YouTube.