No matter the day, it’s always going to be Kendrick Castillo Way between County Line Road and South Broadway in Douglas County’s northernmost municipality.

On May 7, 2019, high school senior Kendrick Castillo sacrificed himself to save the lives of other students during the STEM School Highlands Ranch mass shooting, which injured eight other students.

Now, more than five years later, his name is visible to many traveling through one of Highlands Ranch’s busier roads, formerly known as Lucent Boulevard.

“These signs are a permanent way to memorialize the heroic acts as well as the life of Kendrick Castillo,” Gov. Jared Polis previously said at the memorial ceremony in December.

As of this week, all 30 new signs across the corridor are renamed, finishing with completed signs along C-470 exits.

“Kendrick Castillo Way is more than a street sign, it is a way of life,” Commissioner Abe Laydon, founder of the Kendrick Castillo Memorial Committee, said in a statement Tuesday.

“Running into the danger and the unknown to save others, sacrificing your life to save someone else — that’s the highest expression of who we can be as humans and as Coloradans,” Laydon said.

Creating and installing the signage along Lucent Boulevard throughout local Douglas County roads finished in December, costing the county $43,559. At an additional cost of $95,000, Kendrick Castillo Way signs have been placed along C-470, with final sign installations happening this week.

The C-470 signage costs were reduced from an estimated $1 million, due to the Colorado Department of Transportation partnering with the county to place a panel over the existing signs, instead of fully replacing it, according to county officials.

County spokesperson Caroline Frizell said the renaming doesn’t negatively impact businesses, which she said eight businesses occupy the two-mile stretch of road.

“The business impacts were evaluated during the land use process last fall,” Frizell said. “Just one business originally reached out with concerns, but appeared at the land use hearing in support of the name change.”

Kendrick Castillo Way replaces Lucent Boulevard. The old road name has been in place since 1999, two years after Lucent Corp. moved into the area. The corporation has since moved out.

“The only impact,” Frizell said of the name change, “was to the three buildings originally owned by Lucent.”

Changing the name to Kendrick Castillo Way is among other actions to memorialize the high school senior, including a scholarship in his name, a Civic Green Park memorial and the renaming of a Douglas County School District robotics lab.

“I believed it was very important for our community to turn tragedy into triumph and elevate the name of one of our greatest heroes, Kendrick Castillo, as a beacon of courage and heroism to all who come to Douglas County,” Laydon said.