Before sunrise on Tuesday, a massive crane in northeast Colorado Springs hoisted 105-foot steel girders weighing 105,000 pounds apiece into place for the new Flying Horse Club Drive bridge, marking one of the most visible milestones yet in the long-awaited Powers Boulevard extension. Crews started the lift at 4 a.m., working to get the heavy steel set before the city held an official status presentation on the project later that day.
Bridge Work Accelerates Through Flying Horse
The girder placement is part of a broader infrastructure phase that includes four separate bridge structures, according to Wisevoter. In addition to the road bridges at Flying Horse Club Drive and Ridgeline Drive, crews are building a bridge over Black Squirrel Creek and a pedestrian bridge just north of Flying Horse Club Drive. Once finished, traffic on Powers Boulevard will travel over the Black Squirrel Creek span while passing underneath the three other structures.
As reported by KKTV, crews have been setting girders for the Flying Horse Club Drive bridge and are expected to begin similar work at Ridgeline Drive soon. The station reports that drivers will start seeing more earthwork as the roadway is built below grade through much of Flying Horse, since Powers Boulevard will run beneath the surrounding bridges in that stretch.
A Project Decades in the Making
City engineer and public works deputy director Gayle Sturdivant told the station the extension will give Colorado Springs another transportation connection as growth continues on the east side. The project has roots going back to 1963, and KKTV notes that I-25 currently serves as the city's primary north-south route, with the Powers extension intended to give drivers another option while improving access to area airports.
Formal environmental assessments for extending Powers Boulevard north from Woodmen Road to I-25 were completed in 1997 and later folded into the city's ConnectCOS transportation master plan in 2023, according to the same report from the Colorado Springs Gazette carried in the dossier's reporting on project history. City engineers view the missing northern segment as a critical connection for the region. Powers Boulevard itself is designated as Colorado State Highway 21, functioning as El Paso County's primary eastern express bypass linking Fountain in the south to northern Colorado Springs and I-25, per the Colorado Department of Transportation.
Noise Concerns Linger as Analysis Continues
Nearby Flying Horse residents have raised concerns about future traffic noise once the extension opens, and the city says it took noise readings before construction began. Sturdivant said the city is following a federal process to model that noise and determine whether mitigation, such as sound walls, will be necessary, with a completed analysis expected sometime in 2027.
That modeling relies on federal thresholds requiring a predicted 66-decibel noise level, or a 10-decibel jump over existing ambient noise, before a sound wall gets funded, according to The Fletcher Team. The outlet also reports that the City of Colorado Springs has confirmed in official project documentation that it does not plan to conduct post-construction noise measurements once the extension actually opens to traffic, leaving residents to rely on the pre-construction modeling alone.
Unusual Financing Speeds Up Construction
Part of why bridge work is moving quickly comes down to how it's being paid for. Under a September 2023 reimbursement agreement, the Copper Ridge Metropolitan District is fronting the cost of construction, with the city reviewing and approving statements to reimburse the district using Pikes Peak Rural Transportation Authority funds. PPRTA voters approved the Powers Boulevard extension as an A-list priority back in November 2022, with the city estimating the segment from State Highway 83 to Voyager Parkway at roughly $72 million.
Phased construction of the main Powers Boulevard highway through Flying Horse is scheduled to run from 2027 through 2030, following completion of the current bridge work and utility relocations, per the Gazette's reporting carried by Beaton Brothers Property Experts. KKTV reports the overall project is projected to wrap in 2030, establishing a continuous express connection from Highway 83 to Voyager Parkway.
Development Pressure Builds Around the Corridor
The bridge work isn't happening in isolation. In October 2026, developers submitted a zoning amendment to add 1.6 acres to the Creekridge at Flying Horse residential project near InterQuest Parkway, adjusting parcel boundaries to account for right-of-way realignments tied to the future Powers Boulevard interchange, according to city planning department records.
Just down the corridor, groundbreaking took place last month for a 45,000-square-foot Latter-day Saints temple on 18.6 acres at Flying Horse Club Drive near Highway 83, as Hoodline previously reported. That project adds another active construction site along the same stretch of road that will eventually carry the extended Powers Boulevard, with both developments underscoring how fast the Flying Horse area is changing even before the highway itself is finished.
