YGR learned last week that Kechter Road at the I25 overpass will be repaved and will have bike lanes added in both directions and on both sides of the bridge. The project, which is part of the Fort Collins SMP (Street Maintenance Program), will include 10’ travel lanes and 5’ bike lanes on each side. It will have a total width of 30′. Work is planned to start on Monday, July 8th and will take about a week.
Like many of you, I was surprised at the lack of bike lanes and poor road conditions along Kechter Road after the new and improved I25 overpass opened in May of 2022. This was especially surprising since CDOT had the road closed for seven months to replace the bridge. Their work included a new wider bridge, sidewalks, bike lanes, and a roundabout. It was a bit of a bike/ped infrastructure island as those amenities were lacking for a few hundred feet on either side of the CDOT right of way. I immediately reached out to the city to see if they had plans to make improvements along Kechter Road on both sides of the bridge. I emphasized the fact that local cyclist Steve Studt was killed by a driver while riding up the east side of the bridge in June of 2016. Even though it wasn’t on their radar at the time, they were very open to finding a solution. It took some time to determine whether the Traffic Engineering Department would handle it as a capital project or if the Maintenance Department could complete it as part of the SMP. After surveying the area, it was determined that the Maintenance Department could make the improvements at a much lower cost and considerably sooner.
The road is named after George and Louise Kechter, who were long-time residents of Fort Collins and owned a 286-acre farm in the area of Ziegler and Trilby
Roads. The proper pronunciation of Kechter Road is “keck-ter.”
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