El Paso County will build a roundabout on Woodmoor Drive at the north entrance to the Monument Park-and-Ride, about 460 feet north of Lake Woodmoor Drive, and add medians that stop left turns from Lake Woodmoor Drive onto southbound Woodmoor. The $2.6 million construction contract is paid from the region’s transportation sales tax, and work is expected to start late this year.
Where it goes
The county commissioners approved the construction contract on Oct. 20. The county calls the job the Woodmoor Dr/Lake Woodmoor Dr Roundabout Project, after the intersection it is meant to fix. The roundabout itself will be about 460 feet north, where Woodmoor Drive meets the public entrance to the Monument Park-and-Ride, which the Colorado Department of Transportation owns.
Concrete medians will run down the middle of Woodmoor Drive from Highway 105 to the roundabout, and along Lake Woodmoor Drive from Woodmoor Drive to the bank entrance. Drivers coming out of Lake Woodmoor Drive, or out of the gas station on the corner, will no longer be able to turn left toward Highway 105. They will turn right, go around the roundabout and head back south, a detour of about 0.17 mile. In the design the county’s consultant recommended in 2025, drivers heading south on Woodmoor Drive can still turn left onto Lake Woodmoor Drive.
Why there
The problem is the left turn out of Lake Woodmoor Drive. In counts taken in September 2024, about 1,650 vehicles entered the intersection in each rush hour, 7 to 8 a.m. and 2:45 to 3:45 p.m. The county says traffic there rises when the nearby schools let out in the afternoon. Benesch, the engineering firm the county hired to study the intersection, gave the left turn onto southbound Woodmoor Drive an F, the lowest grade traffic engineers give for delay, in both rush hours. Its 2045 projection, with nothing changed, put the wait for that turn at more than eight minutes.
Seven crashes were reported at the intersection from 2019 through 2023, four of them with injuries and none fatal.
Benesch looked at four other options before choosing the Park-and-Ride entrance:
- A four-way stop backed traffic up toward Highway 105.
- A traffic signal would have been less than 400 feet from the signal at Highway 105. Engineers generally want signals at least a quarter mile apart.
- A roundabout at Lake Woodmoor Drive itself scored well in the models. But cars waiting at the Highway 105 light can back up about 276 feet, and the roundabout’s edge would be about 250 feet away.
- A roundabout at Monument Hill Road would have sent drivers half a mile out of their way and was estimated at $6.3 million.
The study team also watched drivers turn right out of Lake Woodmoor Drive and then make U-turns at or near the Park-and-Ride entrance to head south. The new roundabout is designed to handle that U-turn traffic.
Who pays
Native Sun Construction, which the county says is located in Monument, submitted the lowest qualified bid of the five opened Oct. 7. Its contract is capped at $2,594,025.87. The commissioners approved it 5-0 on their consent calendar, the routine items passed together in one vote. Holly Williams, the commissioner whose District 1 includes Woodmoor, made the motion.
The money comes from the Pikes Peak Rural Transportation Authority (PPRTA), which collects a 1 percent sales tax in Colorado Springs, unincorporated El Paso County and four smaller towns. The county’s agenda item gives the source as the authority’s “Major Road & Bridge Reconstruction Program” and the net cost to the county as $0.00.
In November 2022, voters extended the authority’s tax for building projects, 0.55 cents on each dollar, through 2034. They also approved a list of projects and programs that includes “Major Road and Bridge Reconstruction – Phase 1 (El Paso County).” The ballot named the program, not this intersection. The county proposes the projects a program pays for, and this contract was on the PPRTA board’s Oct. 14 agenda.
The contract covers construction only. The county’s project page lists $700,000 for design and gives the funding as county and PPRTA money. In a September briefing to the Northern El Paso County Coalition of Community Organizations (NEPCO), the county put the whole project at about $4.1 million. Benesch’s 2025 study had estimated construction at this spot at about $3.8 million.
How residents were told
The county held an open house on the study on March 5, 2025, in the auditorium at Palmer Ridge High School, and posted the invitation on its website and social media. Thirty-eight people signed in, and the consultants estimated that more than 50 came. Their report says the public “was split on the roundabout recommendation.” It also says a majority supported improvements, including a roundabout, and even bringing back a temporary roundabout until the permanent work is built. The county had tried a temporary roundabout earlier as a trial and told Benesch the public received it positively.
The county advertised the construction bid on Sept. 8.
Construction and contacts
The county expects construction to start late this year and run into 2027. Its project page, last updated Sept. 28, lists the road closure and detour as “N/A.” Questions go to the El Paso County Department of Public Works through the county’s Citizen Connect site or at 719-520-6460. The project manager is Alissa Werre.
Other roundabouts nearby
- Deer Creek Road at Woodmoor Drive. A roundabout with lighting is part of a $6 million PPRTA rebuild of Deer Creek Road from Monument Hill Road to Woodmoor Drive, with construction in 2026 and 2027. Deer Creek Road is closed to eastbound traffic between Monument Hill Road and Woodmoor Drive during the work.
- Furrow Road. Two small traffic circles were installed in August, at Minglewood Trail (north) and at Lamplight Drive and Minglewood Trail.
- Baptist, Hodgen and Roller Coaster roads. The county’s September briefing lists a roundabout at the intersection, with land purchases first and construction between July and September 2027. The intersection is on the list voters approved in 2022.
Sources & further reading
The Independent’s own coverage: A Quarter of the County’s Road Plan Runs Through Tri-Lakes and Black Forest, on the county’s long-range road plan for the north and the sales tax that pays for most of the work with a date
County record: Agenda item summary, Board of County Commissioners, Oct. 20, 2026, item 5.n.5 (contract, bids, funding source) · Minutes, Board of County Commissioners, Oct. 20, 2026 (the 5-0 vote) · Capital Improvement Projects, El Paso County Department of Public Works (the Woodmoor, Deer Creek and Furrow Road entries) · Woodmoor Dr & Lake Woodmoor Dr Traffic Study, Benesch for El Paso County, April 10, 2025 (counts, crashes, options, the March 2025 open house) · El Paso County Department of Public Works briefing to NEPCO, Sept. 12, 2026 (the $4.1 million estimate and the Baptist Road schedule)
Regional record: PPRTA Board of Directors packet, Oct. 14, 2026, item 7B · 2022 PPRTA ballot language
Entities: Pikes Peak Rural Transportation Authority · El Paso County Department of Public Works · El Paso County Board of County Commissioners
Using this reporting? Credit The Monument Independent and link to this article: https://monumentindependent.com/government/woodmoor-drive-roundabout-park-and-ride/. Our guidelines are at Using Our Reporting.
