Concrete Works of Colorado Inc. (CWC) said it anticipates completing the $85 million Wadsworth Improvement Project covering 2 mi. of Colorado 121/Wadsworth Boulevard from 35th Avenue to Interstate 70 in mid-April 2026.
The city of Wheat Ridge led the planning and design effort for the project and is overseeing the construction that is transforming Wadsworth into a multimodal roadway. The upgrade will permit 45,000 vehicles to travel the section — bounded by mileposts 15 and 17 — daily.
Construction began in November 2021. Substantial completion of the larger infrastructure was achieved in December 2025
"After years of planning and construction, Wadsworth Boulevard is fully open with major safety, mobility and access improvements," according to the city's January construction update. "While final landscaping and artwork will wrap up this spring, the transformation of this vital corridor is already delivering smoother travel, improved connectivity and new economic opportunities for the community."
The project, financed by partnerships and funding from local voters, along with federal ($44 million), state and regional sources, widened the road from two lanes in each direction to three.
Additional work included redesigning the intersections at 38th and 44th avenues into continuous-flow intersections, installing new utilities, building a continuous sidewalk on the west side, installing a bike/pedestrian path on the east side of Wadsworth, updating signals and adding raised medians.
Workers also built a 550-ft. long sound wall between 35th and 36th avenues; constructed raised crosswalks across right-turn lanes at the northwest and southeast corners of the 44th Avenue intersection and the northwest corner of the 38th Avenue intersection; and installed new lighting for sidewalks and paths. Additionally, 30,000 trees, plants and shrubs are being planted.
Safety and efficient traffic flow are key aspects.
"Compared to other intersection types, the CFI design best reduces wait times, makes traffic flow smoother, and improves safety by reducing conflict points where crashes typically occur," according to the city's project page. "The CFIs also require less land for construction and shorten crossing distances for pedestrians and cyclists compared to traditional intersection designs. Prior to construction, crash data showed that Wadsworth had a crash rate more than four times higher than the statewide average for similar corridors."
HDR designed the project, which features concrete roadways.
Mark Almond, CFC's project manager, explained to Construction Equipment Guide that concrete roads typically last 30 to more than 40 years with far less maintenance than an asphalt road lasting 15 to 20 years.
Remaining work consists of striping, grinding and irrigation commissioning.
"We were waiting for the weather to warm up to get it done," Almond said.
Challenges Arise
Working in an urban setting is never easy, which created several challenges that Concrete Works of Colorado overcame.
"The biggest challenges were rooted in this being a busy urban corridor," Almond said. "The last time there was a major urban project on Wadsworth was in the mid-1950s. Everything needed to be upgraded. This was a bottom-up [project], starting with the deepest wet utilities and then getting the dry utilities out of the way before we could get to the paving. And, because it's urban, there are space constraints, so phasing the project to keep the public moving was paramount."
Another early challenge was relocating a CenturyLink telephone line.
"The city didn't realize that it had to be relocated in its entirety before we could demolish any of it," Almond said. "That delayed us six months right out of the gate. We were able to make some of that back, but then they change-ordered another $16 million worth of work to complete the whole corridor. The original phase bid went from I-70 to 43rd Avenue with concrete pavement, and the rest of it to 35th Avenue was going to be a concrete overlay. They received some federal funding that came through in 2023."
Almond was able to work through the challenges and still has time to finish the project.
"I am on schedule," he said.
In addition to building two new lanes, the existing asphalt lanes were replaced with concrete lanes that have, at minimum, 6-in. subgrade reconditioning, a 6-in. road base and a 10-in. concrete topping. CWC brought in a Con E Co. concrete batch plant for the project. Working with an engineer, the company designed its own mix for the concrete topping.
The road work began at I-70 and headed north to 35th Avenue with the construction of the two new lanes, then headed back south to reconstruct the existing four asphalt lanes.
Early on, CWC had excavation, site prep and paving crews working simultaneously.
"That was our plan coming in," Almond said. "Get our wet utility crews going and have the paving crews right behind them. We used our Wirtgen W210i milling machine to pull up the asphalt and saved the millings to be used as road base."
There were some groundwater issues, as part of the road was built on a wetland and, toward 35th Avenue in the south end, CXWC was unaware of a landfill area.
"We discovered it as we started digging," Almond said. "We came across construction debris and trash and ended up hauling all of it to the dump. When we tested the groundwater, there was contamination."
For the most part, crews constructed two lanes simultaneously.
Almond pointed out that the scheduling was based on road work, utility installation, the building of the sidewalk on the west side and bike lane on the east side, and the work on the intersections being done simultaneously via section to maximize the efforts of the crews. The owners of the dry utilities removed and relocated their infrastructure.
For the stormwater infrastructure, CWC installed prefabricated manholes and inlets.
Varied Equipment Used
For the roadwork and associated operations, CWC used a Gradall XL 4300, XL 5200 and XL 3300; a Cat CP 323 compactor; Cat excavators, including two 345CLs, a 365CL, 308, a 349f and a 321CL; a Cat 140M2 motor grader, a Cat 938M loader; a GOMACO RTP500 placer; a GOMACO GP 2500 slipform paver; a GOMACO 9500 trimmer, a Cat C27 generator set; and a Genie S-65RT lift.
The 550-ft.-long concrete sound wall is 20-ft.-tall, placed above 30-ft.-deep caissons that were cast in place. SEMA prefabricated the posts and panels.
The soundwall construction was sequenced over three two-week periods. The caissons were installed in mid-2024, the posts were put up in early 2025 and the panels were placed in November 2025.
"We had a Rocky Mountain crane on site with a 60-ton crane," Almond said. "We didn't want to place the sidewalk first, but, because we did, we were able to use our Genie S-65RT manlift on the sidewalk to help guide the wall panels."
Almond said solid planning was the key to the project's success.
"This is an exciting project for us," Almond said. "There was certainly some pain as we were going through various aspects and learning on the job. The guys absolutely had to show up to work. It's one of those projects where you have a 20-foot deep hole, and you have to stick it out until you can leave it in a safe condition before going home. The crews sometimes put in 12- to 16-hour days."
Peak days had more than 40 CWC and subcontractor personnel on site.
Major subcontractors include Sturgeon Electric (electrical), Baerren (shotcrete), Ludwig (caissons), Colorado Barricade (signage), Kolbe (striping), Ideal Fence (fence and barricades), JH Pavia (trucking), Powell Restoration (landscaping and Irrigation), Brannan (detour pavement), Chacon Paving (detour pavement) and Dynamic Pump Services (contaminated groundwater treatment).
Approximately 30,000 tons of recycled asphalt from the existing road were recycled to build the new lanes. More than 17,000 cu. yds. of old construction debris and otherwise unsuitable material were relocated from the pond area to the landfill and nearly 20,000 cu. yds. of concrete was used for concrete paving.
Almond said the project has unique equipment issues.
"One of the places where we had serious ongoing maintenance was that we used our asphalt milling machines to cut the grade down to the subgrade level," he said. "You could pretty much cut to exactly where we wanted it in one pass, but that turned into needing to replace the teeth quite a bit and more than we anticipated. Our shop was only 30 minutes away, and our mechanics visited the site often."
CWC buys and rents equipment from dealerships such as Wagner Equipment Co. (Cat), 4Rivers Equipment (John Deere), Arvada Rent-All, Equipmentshare and Faris Machinery Co. (paver molds and custom fabrication).
"Equipment dealerships become key partners at the worst times," Almond said. "When everything goes per plan, your success is already laid out; when things don't go per plan, sometimes you need partners. From 4Rivers staying on site into the night to fix a piece of equipment we would need in the morning, to Arvada Rent-All delivering items like plate tampers and manlifts on a moment's notice, it's the hard times that make you appreciate people who follow through."
