Colorado Roads - I-25

I-25


All photos on this page courtesy Michael Summa.


Saving the best for first, Nevada Ave. SB leaving Colorado Springs. US 87 is now on I-25 throughout Colorado, and US 85 is also along for the ride around Colorado Springs, which makes no sense to me, because U.S. routes are supposed to be the surface equivalents of freeways. In fact, C-83 from here north to Denver parallels I-25 and would be a great candidate to remove US 87 and let it run free again. To end the digression, C-122 is a completely dead route now, as of 1997, so this is the end of I-25 Business and the beginning of C-115, and nothing more. This 1983 photo of course still had C-122 on it, but this sign managed to survive past 1997 with only the removal of the COLO 122 shield (which dates the sign to the mid-1960's).


Looking north along C-18 from the beginning to its nearby end in the background at I-25 Exit 173. Taken in 1983.


Like Rhode Island, Colorado had an experiment combining sequential exit numbers with a mile-based system. Unless people would give directions using both sets of numbers, though, there's no point in providing mileage because it's there on the side of the road, so ultimately Colorado made the wise decision to go to mile-based exit numbers. This was SB in 1978 in the heart of Denver.


NB in the early 1980's and back to 1978 for original tabless button copy with outlined shields.


The old-spec Stop Ahead is near Mile 256 on the frontage road, which appears to be NB at a railroad connection coming from Loveland across I-25. Aerial photos suggest this is still stop-controlled, no railroad crossbucks or signal to be had. The other sign is one of the few times bicycles are allowed on an Interstate highway, NB past Exit 265. The frontage road doesn't connect between here and Exit 268, but just to the east is Larimer CR 5, which should be a lot better for bikes than a freeway.


Button copy off the freeway: NB Exit 229 ramp (1979), older sign with very possibly a patched over COLORADO 56 shield on the SB Exit 250 ramp (mid-'80's), west frontage road northbound from Exit 259 (mid-'80's), and finally the east frontage road southbound at Larimer CR 44/Exit 268 in the early 1980's before the two northern ramps were added. CR 44 also goes to the left.


Proving that last statement, CR 44 WB in the mid-'80's when the ramps were being added. It got a freeway-spec speed limit sign for construction that was then left up after the work was done. Clearly this sign was previously used on other jobs.


On "the I-25 frontage road" SB in 1983, which is either one of the two frontage roads north of C-60 (south of Exit 254) or is the one frontage road that connects the two pieces of C-60 (north of Exit 252). I would believe the latter, because C-60 is a disjointed route that can only be connected by using the frontage roads - there aren't ramps for the western part of 60.


All NB signage from the mid-1980's. In the background of the first photo is C-14, the second photo is on the Exit 278 ramp to C-1, and the last photo is on the Exit 281 ramp to Larimer CR 70.

Into New Mexico on I-25
Into Wyoming on I-25
Onto US 85
Exit 214 to I-70
Exit 216 to I-76
Exit 216 to US 36
Exit 229 to C-66
Exit 235 to C-52
To C-60
(Exit 257) to US 34
Into Larimer County
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