By designation, Powers Boulevard is a highway. For a commuter navigating over a dozen potential red lights, it might not feel like it.

“Just because you know a freeway is going to exist at some point doesn’t mean you build it now,” said El Paso County Engineer Joshua Palmer.

Also known as Colorado 21, the road running east of Colorado Springs from the Briargate area south to Fountain was always meant to be a main, north-south reliever route for Interstate 25 traffic. When it was first built out in the 1960s, the vision was not completely realized.

More than 60 years later, it’s getting closer.

A design first approved in 1997 is nearing the construction phase to extend Powers north from U.S. 87 to Voyager Parkway. The road section will have the limited access and interchanges of an expressway, similar to the section between Research Parkway and Old Ranch Road.

The project has taxpayer funding through the Pikes Peak Rural Transportation Authority. The construction timeline has an estimated end date of 2030, according to the city of Colorado Springs.

Some of the preliminary work will be underway this month. Crews are scheduled to be working in the neighborhoods north of Powers to relocate utility lines. Starting Monday, Ridgeline Drive will be closed for the relocation project, while a traffic detour will be in place at Flying Horse Club Drive starting June 12.

“Utility relocations serve as a critical first step prior to construction beginning on the new bridge structures as part of the Powers Boulevard Extension project,” wrote City Engineer and Public Works Deputy Director Gayle Sturdivant in a statement.

Elsewhere, different stakeholders are involved in reshaping the existing parts of Powers where start-and-stop traffic is more the norm. Newer interchanges are in place now at busy intersections like Research Parkway and Airport Road. The latter is the recipient of a nearly completed $46 million diverging diamond interchange.

According to Rob Frei, CDOT Region 2 planning and environmental manager, a 2010 study recommended adding other interchanges to smooth traffic along the highway.

“It’s ready and it’s needed,” he said. “Now, the issue comes down to funding.”

He said that while CDOT has a few million dollars set aside in the next few years for interchange studies, the construction dollars may not be there any time soon.

“Like everything else in CDOT, it’s limited,” he said.

Changing the nature of the road could also be a big adjustment for nearby businesses and neighborhoods, especially at intersections that turn into interchanges. Frei said that CDOT evaluates what kind of interchange would best suit each location.

The last and most futuristic addition to Powers would be connecting with I-25 to the south. The highway currently ends at Mesa Ridge Parkway just north of Fountain. In a preliminary planning and environmental linkage study years in the making, El Paso County identified two potential routes to take Powers around Fountain and down to connect with the interstate.

One route would create a connection near the Ray Nixon Power Plant. The other is even further south near Pikes Peak International Raceway. The plan will be going to the El Paso County Planning Commission later this year or in early 2027 for approval, after which the county will start looking at design and property acquisition.

Palmer said that the next phase is not expected to be quick. And actual construction funding for a South Powers extension – which could tally in the hundreds of millions – is not currently planned or available. Still, he said developers were working with the possibility in mind. The plan would bring Powers near land identified for major housing projects.

The largest, Amara, a planned community with nearly 10,000 homes, was put on ice in 2024 after a failed bid by developers to annex into Colorado Springs. In the long term, Palmer said that expansion to the south could necessitate extending Powers.

“Not a lot is happening, but that’s where we expect a significant amount of growth in the next 20 years,” he said.

He said that Powers’ final form might be a problem for the next generation.

“At some point, long after we’re all gone, it will be an actual grade-separated freeway,” he said.