Drive south on Broadway past Redlands Parkway on a Tuesday morning this week and the cones are still there, clustered tight around the 23 Road intersection. But they're not stretched across two miles of shoulder the way they were in July. If you've been gritting your teeth through this year's version of Highway 340, the corridor already gave you its worst month. What's left between now and December is smaller, narrower, and centered on one intersection instead of the whole stretch of road.
That distinction matters if you've been assuming "construction through December" means the same level of disruption all the way to the finish line. It doesn't. Two separate projects have been sharing this stretch of Broadway in 2026, and only one of them is still running.
Two Projects, One Stretch of Highway 340
The Colorado Department of Transportation spent part of this year resurfacing Highway 340, the road most Redlands residents know simply as Broadway. That work overlapped with construction on a new roundabout at Broadway and 23 Road, the primary entrance being built for the Redlands 360 development. The city's own project page for the roundabout notes plainly that the work is being coordinated with CDOT's resurfacing project, which local radio coverage in June described as running through August.
Two agencies working the same road at the same time is why early summer felt like a gauntlet. Resurfacing means full-width lane closures and flagging operations up and down the corridor, not just at one intersection. Once that piece wrapped at the end of August, the traffic pattern narrowed back down to what the roundabout project alone requires, which is a much smaller footprint.
What's Actually Left Between Now and December
The roundabout itself is being built as a single-lane circle, sized with room to expand to two lanes later if traffic volumes justify it. Highway 340 has stayed open to two-way traffic for most of construction, with intermittent single-lane sections and flagging rather than full closures. The part that still affects daily routines is narrower: access to 23 Road south of Broadway remains limited to local residents while crews finish reconstructing that stretch with new curb, gutter, and sidewalk, and South Broadway near the intersection continues to see occasional shifting traffic patterns.
In a Yahoo News report, city engineering and transportation director Trent Prall discussed the roundabout's role in the development.
"This particular roundabout located at Broadway and 23 Road will serve as the primary entrance to one of the largest residential developments that we've had probably in the last 30 or 40 years here with the city of Grand Junction."
That scale is the reason this project outlasted the resurfacing work instead of wrapping alongside it. A signal or a simple turn lane might have been enough for the intersection as it existed a few years ago. It isn't enough for what's coming.
Why a Roundabout Instead of a Signal
The city evaluated turn lanes and a signalized intersection before settling on a roundabout, according to the project's official description, citing projected traffic volumes, long-term growth in the Redlands, and a planned future widening of Highway 340 itself. Roundabouts also keep traffic moving at lower, steadier speeds, generally around 15 miles an hour, which reduces the odds of a serious injury crash compared to a signal where someone runs a red at full speed.
The project carries a roughly $5 million price tag. Redlands 360's developer, La Plata Communities, is covering construction and 75 percent of the cost, with the city responsible for the remaining 25 percent and any future second-lane expansion. The Grand Junction Daily Sentinel reported that Jane Quimby, the project manager overseeing Redlands 360, discussed the December completion target.
"I think that's pretty aggressive, but we're hopeful that we're going to be able to finish with our contractor and be able to meet that aggressive timeline."
Contractor Suncore Construction, which the city previously used to build the Horizon Drive roundabout, is handling the build. If Quimby's read on the schedule holds, the single-lane version opens sometime this winter. The two-lane footprint stays in reserve for whenever the development's later phases push volumes high enough to need it.
The Trailhead Moved, Not Just the Traffic
Anyone who used the informal pull-off parking near 23 Road for the Redlands 360 trail network has already noticed the change. That parking area sits inside the active construction zone and has been closed since work began. In the meantime, users have been directed to Easter Hill or the trailhead off Canyon Rim Drive.
The replacement isn't a stopgap. As part of the Brothers Boulevard construction, the road that will serve as Redlands 360's main entrance and runs west across the site to Easter Hill, the project includes a formal, landscaped trailhead with designated parking, a step up from the old shoulder pull-off. Quimby has said the goal is to expand access rather than just relocate it, adding concrete trail sections for users who don't typically ride the single-track.
That trailhead work is tied to the same buildout timeline driving the roundabout. The development's next residential phase, called 4H Peaks, calls for 47 new homes below Easter Hill, with site infrastructure going in this year and homes framed up starting this fall. The road, the trailhead, and the intersection are all pieces of the same growth curve, arriving on the same rough schedule.
The Smaller Fix That Already Wrapped
Not everything on this side of the Redlands moves on a year-long clock. A short 0.3-mile section of the Redlands Parkway Trail, part of a broader asphalt-to-concrete replacement the city completed in 2023, got flagged by regular users for rough ride quality this spring. The city closed that segment, detoured riders to the bike lane along Redlands Parkway, and reopened the repaired section by the end of May, reconnecting near the Blue Heron Boat Ramp.
Compare that turnaround to the roundabout's June-to-December runway and the difference isn't really about the city dragging its feet on the bigger project. It's about scale. A quarter-mile of trail resurfacing is a few weeks of work. A single-lane roundabout tied to a 1,300-home entrance, built with a coordinated CDOT resurfacing job layered on top, is a full construction season. Both got fixed on a timeline that matched their size, which is a more useful way to think about "when will this be done" than treating every orange cone on Broadway as evidence of the same problem.
What This Means for Your Drive Right Now
If you live south of Broadway near 23 Road, the local-access-only restriction is still the thing most likely to catch you off guard, particularly if you have visitors who don't know to use Easter Hill or Canyon Rim Drive to reach the trail system. If your commute runs along Highway 340 through the Redlands more broadly, the worst of the two-way delays from the CDOT resurfacing is behind you, and what remains is concentrated at one intersection rather than spread across the corridor.
The roundabout that opens this winter won't be the final version either. It's built to current volumes with room to grow, which is a reasonable bet given how much of Redlands 360 is still ahead of it: more phases, more homes, and eventually enough traffic to justify the second lane the engineers already left space for.
If you're trying to figure out how a specific block near the Redlands 360 buildout might be affected by what's still coming, whether that's the next phase of homes, the trailhead relocation, or the eventual two-lane expansion, The Maves Group can walk through what's actually planned versus what's just proposed. Start Your Move with Maves before you assume the current construction picture is the finished one.
