Colorado Springs officials respond to neighbors’ concerns in aftermath of drainage project near Rampart Park entrance
Scott Harrison
COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. (KRDO) — Many neighbors and park visitors express support for recent drainage work that restricted traffic at the entrance to popular Rampart Park, but they’ve also voiced concerns and offered ideas about how to improve safety there.
Of the four citizen concerns shared with KRDO 13’s The Road Warrior, the city will take action on one: installing a fence at the park entrance.
That decision addresses concerns about kids and pets possibly getting into the lower half of the drainage channel along the park’s entrance during heavy stormwater flows.
The lower half remains open and wasn’t upgraded with an underground pipe, as the upper section recently was; the upgrade was to protect a new housing complex from the type of heavy flows that damaged a retaining wall below the complex last summer.
City officials responded to a related concern by saying that the remaining open channel doesn’t require a similar upgrade because it’s “in outstanding condition.”
Speeding traffic along Lexington Drive at the park entrance is another concern raised by citizens, but the city said that Lexington is a major transportation route and, as such, doesn’t qualify for speed humps, roundabouts, or other so-called “traffic calming” devices.
Finally, several citizens believe that the downhill road between the park entrance and a popular dog park is still too narrow and should be widened.
However, the city responded that it has yet to receive such a complaint, and that the road is standard and consistent with other park roads.
“We will continue to monitor the situation and remain open to any feedback we receive,” officials said in a statement.