On March 16, Teller County Commissioner Erik Stone and County Administrator Ross Herzog sat down with the Colorado Department of Transportation and heard a proposal for a roundabout where US 24 meets Colorado 67 in Divide, according to The Gazette. Around the same time, Sheriff Jason Mikesell's office got a call from CDOT. He later told the Pikes Peak Courier that the agency was "putting in a roundabout at that intersection," with "no discussion, just the abrupt announcement." Herzog said the county was "totally caught off guard."
Eight months later, the roundabout is off the table as a done deal. The money behind the project is still in place. CDOT's ten-year plan sets aside dollars for "intersection operational and safety improvements" at this junction and doesn't say what form they take. That leaves the open question for Divide as what the money gets spent on, and CDOT now says it wants local input to help answer it.
How the plan changed over eight months
The project's status has moved several times since spring. In order:
- March 16. CDOT presents a roundabout proposal to county leaders. At a later commissioners' meeting, The Gazette reported, the board raised concerns about resident safety, mining trucks and the future Alpine Vista homes.
- May 7. After officials and nearby landowners objected, Stone told the commissioners' meeting the county had "a verbal confirmation from CDOT that they are putting aside on any further move towards a roundabout until more work has been done, including the inclusion of property owners and local governments." The Gazette headline called the roundabout "scrapped."
- Late September. At a meeting in Woodland Park, CDOT traffic operations project engineer Jason Nelson told county officials, "We made a misstep. Public relations is not our strong suit, so we are starting with a blank slate." Engineering supervisor Andrew Stecklein added, "We hit pause on our design for the intersection."
- Oct. 7. KRDO reported Nelson's description of a roundabout as "just one of several options" for the junction, and said CDOT was waiting to get on the county commissioners' agenda to present a meeting schedule.
- Nov. 9. CDOT scheduled a public listening session on the US 24 and CO 67 corridors at the Teller County Sheriff's Office in Divide.
Over those eight months, the plan went from a single fixed design to a list of options to an open question. The funding stayed the same throughout.
What the money is set aside for
CDOT's FY 2027–2036 10-Year Plan fact sheets, in the February 2026 version, list the project as "US24A Intersection Improvements at CO67F in Divide," planning ID 3341, in Region 2. Its estimated total cost is $8,000,000. The Transportation Commission is asked for $5,000,000 in strategic funding for fiscal years 2027 through 2030. The lines for earlier years, later years and other funding all show $0.
Some details on the sheet matter for anyone who drives through here every day:
| Fact sheet field | What it says |
|---|---|
| Project type | Intersections/Operational, Rural Paving, Safety |
| Project elements | Pavement Reconstruction, Intersection Improvements, Safety Features |
| Mileposts | 277 to 279 on US 24 |
| Status | New Project |
| Origin | Merges prioritized scope from earlier plan projects 1010 and 1642 |
The scope is wider than a new intersection layout. Pavement reconstruction is listed alongside intersection work, and the range covers two miles of US 24. The sheet also folds together two older project numbers, so this junction was already on CDOT's list before anyone said the word "roundabout."
Nelson told KRDO there's "some funding to address some intersection capacity concerns," and that the corner is tight to work with. "All the four corners have, you know, a development plan or already have established businesses. And we have some local access points, driveways. And we also have to kind of look at the corridor." The station noted that the junction has three legs, with County Road 5 joining US 24 and Highway 67, which makes it more complicated than a simple crossroads.
Two of those corners are about to get busier. The Pikes Peak Courier reported that the first phase of the Alpine Vista subdivision and the Teller County Central Service Center are both expected to be finished within two years. Teller County held a beam signing for the Central Service Center in Divide earlier in its construction. Craig Nelson, who is developing the 61-acre Alpine Vista site with his daughter Jessica Nelson, raised concerns at the September meeting about how pedestrians would get through a roundabout safely, and he suggested CDOT visit the subdivision. According to KRDO, CDOT itself counts Divide's growth as one reason it's looking at traffic flow and safety here.
The problem spots locals named go past the junction
When CDOT met county officials in September, it came to talk about one intersection. The sheriff brought a longer list.
His concerns at the junction itself included trucks carrying cyanide to the SSR Cripple Creek & Victor Gold Mine, and the lack of an "escape route" when a crash blocks the intersection. The Pikes Peak Courier reported that his "chief concerns," though, were at other US 24 crossings between Divide and Woodland Park:
- US 24 at Lower Twin Rocks Road
- The entrance to Sherwood Forest, where Mikesell said, "We need a traffic light there"
- The turnoffs to Tranquil Acres Road and CR 25
- The left turn out of the sheriff's building in Divide
He made the same point to KRDO, saying the signals at the junction no longer work like a rural crossing because traffic has grown, and that safety improvements should continue east on US 24 toward Woodland Park.
The project on paper covers two mileposts. The list of local concerns covers the whole drive to Woodland Park. How CDOT handles that gap is one of the open questions this fall's planning has to answer. The county's planning director, Colton Berck, summed up what was at stake at the junction:
"You need to build trust. I feel like this plan was rushed. The intersection is the core of Divide."
What the Nov. 9 session was set up to do
CDOT's plan for rebuilding trust has three steps. Pepper Whitleff, the agency's traffic operations manager, laid them out in September: a survey of residents, then analysis of the responses, then two public open houses. Berck said two meetings weren't enough. "We need to get people in Victor, Cripple Creek and Four Mile to be part of this," he said. "This is a massive change here; the culture in Teller County is in-person."
The first event CDOT put on the calendar was a listening session scheduled for Monday, Nov. 9, from 5 to 7:30 p.m. at the Teller County Sheriff's Office, 11400 US 24. CDOT's announcement said it would cover the future of both the US 24 and CO 67 corridors in the Divide area, with crash data and traffic counts available. It also said plainly that "proposed design alternatives will not be presented at this stage of the project."
"We want to hear from the people who know this corridor best," Nelson said in the announcement. "This is an opportunity for the community to share what matters most to them and help inform how we plan for the corridor's future."
In March, county leaders first heard about the project as a roundabout proposal. This time, CDOT set up the first public meeting to gather input with crash data and traffic counts on hand, and it said no design options would be presented.
The next steps will be posted on the project's own page, Divide Corridor Improvements | US 24 & CO 67 Study. CDOT also offers project and travel alerts by email through bit.ly/COnewsalerts, and scheduled lane closures through bit.ly/laneclosures.
The 24 and 67 junction is where the drive to Cripple Creek and the road to Mueller State Park split off from US 24, so we're following this one closely at Gold District Realty. If you own property near the junction or along the US 24 stretch toward Woodland Park and want to know how a corridor project could affect it, give Ruthie a call. And when you're ready to see what your place is worth today, start with our Instant Property Valuation.
