Photo By Rick Emert | FORT CARSON, Colo. — (From left) Col. Nate Springer, garrison commander; Maj. Gen....... read more read more
By Susan C. Galentine
Directorate of Public Works sustainability specialist
FORT CARSON, Colo. — A ribbon cutting ceremony marking the completion of paving Essayons Road was hosted by the Directorate of Public Works (DPW) Dec. 13, 2021, at the project site near Gate 19.
The ceremony highlighted the end of roadwork to build and improve Essayons Road and separate military vehicle movement from personal vehicle traffic heading to and from Fort Carson’s Gate 19. Commuters entering post using Gate 19, near Interstate 25 exit 128 in Fountain, now have a 2-mile, continuously paved road connecting the gate to the rest of post.
“This is what we’d call a game changer for access and traffic relief across Fort Carson,” said Mark Hunsicker, chief, DPW Engineering Division, of the project. “This impacts not just people driving to the airfield, but everyone on post because it alleviates some of the intrapost traffic.”
The Essayons Road project was spurred by the construction of facilities when Fort Carson gained an infantry brigade combat team and an aviation brigade starting in 2009. The phased paving upgrades to the road were made possible using available project-related funds tied to build up of the Wilderness Road complex and addition of new facilities at Butts Army Airfield to accommodate the growth, said Rick Orphan, traffic engineer, DPW Engineering Division.
Previous to the roadwork, there was no direct on-post route to Gate 19 open for commuters due to airfield fencing. Additionally, Gate 19 at the time was rudimentary and simply served as a vehicle barrier with no required features to operate as a full-time access control point.
The DPW initially evaluated three routes to make the connection from Wilderness Road to Gate 19. An existing dirt route was selected and plans began to upgrade it to an improved gravel road with troop construction support from the 52nd Engineer Battalion in 2012, Orphan said. The road project allowed the Soldiers to exercise their horizontal construction skills in a real-world environment and dramatically reduced Fort Carson’s construction costs for the roadway.
The road’s name, Essayons, was selected to commemorate the construction of the road by Army engineers. Essayons is the motto of the U.S. Army Engineer Regiment, which, translated from French, means “Let us try.”
In 2012, the DPW simultaneously executed a project to construct a new access control point for Gate 19, complete with canopy, lighting and guardhouse.
The paving of Essayons Road also ties in with the Colorado Department of Transportation’s federally funded reconstruction of Charter Oak Ranch Road connecting Gate 19 and Interstate 25, which is set to begin early 2022 and is slated for completion March 2023.
Once the CDOT project is finished, the newly paved on- and off-post traffic corridor will increase the use of Gate 19, providing direct, improved access for Soldiers and civilian employees coming from the east who work in the Butts Army Airfield and Wilderness Road areas.
The resulting shift of traffic will have the added benefit of providing congestion relief at Gate 20 and on post roads between that gate and Wilderness Road. El Paso County estimates that improving Charter Oak Ranch Road will remove approximately one-fourth of the trips to Fort Carson’s Gate 20, improving safety along the Interstate 25 corridor and generating time savings for the post’s 45,000 military personnel and family members.
| Date Taken: | 12.13.2021 |
| Date Posted: | 12.17.2021 10:06 |
| Story ID: | 411437 |
| Location: | US |
| Web Views: | 68 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
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