Updating progress of major drainage project along Siferd Boulevard in Colorado Springs
Scott Harrison
COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. (KRDO) — In the recent past, a rainy spring and summer like we’ve had this year would have occasionally closed the Siferd Boulevard/Date Street intersection because of flash flooding, and even required the emergency rescues of people trapped in their vehicles.
The problem was that the intersection was in the middle of the Templeton Gap Floodway, a narrow drainage channel that starts east of the Academy Boulevard/Austin Bluffs Parkway intersection and eventually flows under Academy and into the north end of Shooks Run Creek.
Another issue was that the area is located in the Park Vista neighborhood, which fell within an enclave — a small section of El Paso County surrounded by city jurisdiction — making it unclear who was responsible for flood control.
However, the city and county reached an agreement under which they’ll split the $11 million cost, and the city annexed the enclave.
Earlier this year, crews permanently closed the three-way Siferd/Date intersection, and have now built cul-de-sacs at each end.
The Date cul-de-sac connects to an access road leading to several businesses along Austin Bluffs.
Workers are widening the drainage channel to increase capacity and are adding drop structures to slow the velocity of stormwater flow.
Crews will eventually plant vegetation on the banks of the channel to create a park-like atmosphere.
The project’s next major step comes this fall, when a bridge over the north end of the channel on Hopeful Drive will close for nine months as workers replace it with a new structure.
Officials hope to finish the project late next year.
“The previous drainage had capacity for about a 50-year event, which has a 2% chance every year of occurring,” said Erin Powers, the city’s Stormwater Enterprise Manager. “Moving forward, it’s going to be able to convey the full 100-year event, which is our largest flood design event. So, that allows us to take houses out of the floodplain in that neighborhood.”
Todd Frisbie, the city’s traffic engineer, said that traffic safety upgrades have been made on at least one neighborhood street used as a detour around the project.
“On Hopeful Drive, we put in some speed humps, and we’ll be putting in some other traffic control measures — some striping — to address the existing speeding issue on that roadway,” he explained. “That’s a road that potentially could get more traffic with the closure.”