More than 380 Sedalia prairie dogs were evicted from their
burrows last week by earth-grading crews from the Colorado
Department of Transportation.
CDOT is preparing to reconstruct the increasingly busy Sedalia
intersection at U.S. 85 and Colorado 67.
Although actual road construction work is not scheduled to begin
until April, CDOT wanted to make sure burrowing owls do not nest on
the land where the intersection will be reconfigured, said Mike
Brenner, project engineer with CDOT.
If the owls nested, CDOT would not be able to work on the
intersection until the owls were gone for the winter
season.
Last week, crews graded a strip of land 3,000-feet long on
Cherokee Ranch, immediately east of the existing intersection. Then
the crews installed a silt fence beside the 3,000-acre open space
ranch, to keep the prairie dogs from returning to their disturbed
burrows.
Crews will regrade the easement repeatedly until CDOT begins
expanding the intersection.
Construction companies are getting ready to submit bids for the
$8 million intersection reconstruction project. Once CDOT reviews
the bids, crews will add turn lanes, replace a traffic signal,
medians and sidewalks. The historic Cherokee Ranch entry sign will
be relocated on the U.S. 85 side of the property.
The work will be done by April 2004, CDOT said.