Author: KRDO

Rob Namnoum

Top prep performances for the week of October 7th.

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Scott Harrison

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. (KRDO) — After stalling in front of Walmart for more than four months, a major segment of the ongoing 8th Street improvements project has resumed its gradual advance northward.

In a release issued late last week, city officials said that the northbound lanes of 8th Street, between Motor City Drive and Lower Gold Camp Road/Abbot Lane, would reopen to traffic on Monday.

And it did, shortly after 7:30 a.m.

Last week, crews began repaving the affected block to cover the first part of a new water main being installed by Colorado Springs Utilities (CSU) between Motor City and Cimarron Street.

Crews have also applied temporary lane markings there, and the city said that crews will return later to apply a final asphalt layer and permanent lane markings.

Progress slowed after crews bored 30 feet under Bear Creek for the first phase of the installation; CSU had to connect local business service lines to the new main, and the city had to complete stormwater upgrades to address flash flooding from the hills above 8th Street.

That phase was also delayed earlier when crews learned they had to redesign the bore under the creek.

Opening the lanes mentioned above should provide relief for drivers turning into Walmart; however, traffic immediately narrows to one lane in each direction as the pattern shifts to the east side of 8th Street, and the next phase of the water main replacement continues.

That phase will be in front of the Shell gas station and the former Sonic restaurant, with the traffic impacts extending an additional block to Costilla Street.

The water main in that area is on the opposite side of 8th Street, and the new traffic pattern brings significant impacts to adjacent businesses — including KRDO 13.

The new pattern also closes Moreno Avenue at the 8th Street intersection.

Still, some drivers and pedestrians are glad to see the gradual improvements.

“It’s complicated with a dog, and with groceries, and a bike,” said Essie Garner, Jr., who walks through the area daily to catch a city bus. “But other than that, I really got no problem with it. I think they’re doing a good job. I think they’re doing a good job cleaning up the road, yeah.”

Meanwhile, repairs continue on the west side of the Fountain Creek bridge, at the north end of the project; that work occasionally closes the southbound left lane, which can cause traffic backups in three directions at the north end of 8th Street, the westbound lanes of the US 24 Frontage Road, and the parking lot of the Colorado Place shopping center.

Officials hope to finish the entire project late next spring.

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Dylan Foreman

WOODLAND PARK, Colo. (KRDO)–For most kickers, pressure is part of the job description. One swing of the leg can determine whether a team celebrates a victory or walks away with a heartbreaking loss. For Woodland Park kicker Barrett Absher, handling those high-pressure moments comes down to a simple mindset.

“I’ve gotten pretty good at zoning out recently,” Absher said. “I kind of just zone out. One thing I think is, just kick the ball as hard as I can.”

That approach has worked remarkably well.

Absher has emerged as one of Colorado’s top kicking threats this season, connecting on field goals from 48, 51 and 53 yards. Those booming kicks rank among some of the longest made field goals in Colorado high school football this year and have put the Woodland Park standout on the radar of college recruiters.

It began with the first game of the season against Palmer, when his coaching staff challenged him with a long-distance attempt.

“We actually had a game against Palmer. I kicked a 48-yarder, and coach was like, ‘If you miss this, you’re never kicking one again,'” Absher recalled with a laugh. “It felt like a lot of pressure. But at the end of the day, I was like, I’m just going to kick as hard as I can.”

The result? A successful kick.

Absher’s leg strength didn’t develop overnight. A five-sport athlete, he credits his soccer background for much of his success on the football field.

“It’s pretty much the same motion,” he said. “I learned a lot of technique with it. The muscles are 100% built from soccer.”

While field goals may be his specialty, Absher’s versatility extends beyond kicking. He contributes in multiple phases of the game, playing on offense and defense while also handling punting duties.

“Kicking is definitely natural,” Absher said. “Punting is pretty natural, but it’s still a little funky.”

With another season of high school football still ahead of him, Absher hopes to continue adding distance and accuracy to his game. His long-term goal is clear: take his powerful leg to the college level.

“Thinking about my future and kicking, that’s kind of the next step for sports,” Absher said. “If I’d go to college now, 100%.”

For now, Woodland Park is benefiting from one of the state’s strongest legs. And when the Panthers need points from long range, Absher keeps his approach simple: block out the noise and kick the ball as hard as he can.

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Scott Harrison

PUEBLO, Colo. (KRDO) — It started a bit later than planned, but crews have finally begun removing old pavement from two miles of Court Street between City Center Drive and 24th Street.

It’s one of four repaving projects scheduled this year in the Steel City.

Molly Evans, deputy public works director, said that there was a delay in the paperwork required for the contractor to be licensed for the Court Street repaving; crews finally began milling on Monday.

Court Street is one of the main routes for drivers to get downtown; much of it is one-way, southbound.

Evans said that a similar repaving on nearby Elizabeth Street — from City Center Drive to 29th Street — is delayed until next year, adding that it’s too late in the paving cycle to start another major project.

This spring, the city completed two other repaving projects: a mile at the north end of Jerry Murphy Road, and a mile of 6th Street between Interstate 25 and Midtown Circle, cutting through the southwest part of downtown.

Having just four streets on a paving list doesn’t seem like much, but remember that Pueblo doesn’t have a dedicated funding source for repaving or transportation projects like Colorado Springs and El Paso County do.

Evans said that city leaders continue to discuss the possibility of establishing a funding mechanism.

“I know the mayor had brought forth that quarter-cent sales tax to (the City) Council for some road improvements down here, but (the) Council opted to not include it on the ballot,” she said. (A tax) may be a viable solution, depending on how it’s structured and how that’s going to impact the taxpayer.”

While officials spend the winter planning next year’s paving projects, crews will enter their second year of using a hot-mix asphalt truck to patch potholes year-round.

The advantage is that the truck allows crews to make longer-lasting pothole repairs and can be used in winter when most asphalt plants have closed.

Evans said the truck has worked so well that the city hopes to acquire a second truck soon.

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Rob Namnoum

The Palmer Ridge football team defeated Rampart on Thursday night 56-7. As the Bears improve to seven and oh on the season.

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Scott Harrison

TELLER COUNTY, Colo. (KRDO) — Dan Silvis has lived in Tranquil Acres since 1994, but he’s not feeling tranquil about the lack of road maintenance in the private community of approximately 250 residents.

Silvis is particularly concerned about the condition of Fern Road, where he lives; like all roads in Tranquil Acres, it’s a gravel road that’s hilly, bumpy, rutted, and significantly eroded on one side.

He said that the Tranquil Acres Water Board recently installed water lines under the road, and that two of his neighbors have used equipment to dig into the road over the past few years.

Since that digging began, Silvis said that the road is narrower and lower, and could expose the new water lines to damage and potentially interrupt water service to customers.

He explained that the two neighbors are part-time residents who live in a home across the road from him, and that the digging is an attempt to redirect runoff from the road so that it drains around their home.

Silvis said that he has tried to ask the neighbors to stop digging, but they have refused to.

The neighbors weren’t at home when KRDO 13’s The Road Warrior stopped by on Thursday.

Silvis said that Teller County previously provided road maintenance on the main road through the community — Blossom Road — but stopped doing it several years ago because it’s on private property, and because most roads in the community don’t meet county specifications to be maintained.

He believes the water board is responsible for maintenance.

However, a board member told The Road Warrior that’s not the case.

As of this writing, it’s unclear who — if anyone — has road maintenance responsibilities.

Silvis said that a few residents already plow the roads in front of their homes or pay a contractor to do it, and he fears that could become more common until the road maintenance dilemma is resolved.

“And up here in Teller County, we can get some pretty deep snow,” he added.

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Josh Helmuth

MONUMENT, Colo.(KRDO13) — Students at Lewis-Palmer Elementary School are getting some new outdoor spaces — and they have a group of local Scouts and their community to thank.

What started as a Scout project quickly grew into a school community effort, resulting in three new outdoor classrooms for students.

Early last month, Scouts gathered to build the spaces at the school. Three additional troops joined the effort, bringing the total number of volunteers to about 75 people.

With help from a $3,000 grant from the Tri-Lakes Women’s Club, the volunteers were able to build three outdoor classrooms, which students named the “Basecamp Classroom,” “Summit Classroom,” and “Outpost Classroom.”

The project came together over one weekend in early September, with community members also donating supplies to help make it happen.

A ribbon-cutting ceremony was held last week to officially celebrate the new spaces.

The outdoor classrooms will give Lewis-Palmer Elementary students new places to learn, work and enjoy the outdoors.

And after all that hard work, the students have some pretty impressive new spaces to call their own.

Know someone or something remarkable at your school? Email Josh! SchoolBuzz@KRDO.com.

Stay up to date with the latest local news, sports, and investigations by downloading the KRDO13 app. Click here to download it from the Apple App Store. Android users can download it from Google Play here.

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Scott Harrison

TELLER COUNTY, Colo. (KRDO) — The recent trend of roundabouts on or near highways in Colorado could eventually come to the small but growing mountain town of Divide.

KRDO 13’s The Road Warrior has learned that a roundabout could be built at the three-way junction of US 24, Highway 67, and County Road 5.

The possibility has sparked controversy over whether the Colorado Department of Transportation (CDOT) approved a roundabout before seeking feedback from county officials.

“Initially, my office was contacted and told that it was non-negotiable,” said Sheriff Jason Mikesell. “But I think it was probably done at a lower-management level. I think there’s a lot of good things happening now, a lot of discussions.”

Jason Nelson, a CDOT program engineer, clarified that a roundabout is just one of several options to improve traffic flow and increase safety at the junction.

“We do have some funding to address some intersection capacity concerns,” he said. “But there are a lot of constraints to kind of work around. All the four corners have, you know, a development plan or already have established businesses. And we have some local access points, driveways. And we also have to kind of look at the corridor.”

The next step is for CDOT to schedule and announce a series of public meetings where citizens can learn more about possible future upgrades at the junction.

Nelson said that CDOT is waiting to get on the agenda of the county’s Board of Commissioners to present a meeting schedule.

Mikesell expressed several concerns about the roundabout possibility — that signals at the junction no longer function as a rural crossing because of increased traffic, and that safety improvements should extend east on US 24, between Divide and Woodland Park.

“In the past, we’ve contacted them over the deaths in those areas, and the traffic accidents, and the serious concerns we had,” he explained. “And they really fell on deaf ears because they said, well, there hadn’t been enough deaths yet. Well, that’s, to me, hard to understand. And in speaking with them — the CDOT crew that’s managing this part — both are two people on that team that I talked to the other day, have experienced losses of family members or relatives along the highway.”

CDOT also sees future growth in the small mountain town at an elevation of 9,000 feet as a catalyst to improve traffic flow and safety at the three-way junction.

The Road Warrior spoke with a landowner who said that 300 apartments and homes are under construction at the southwest corner of the junction, and just to the southeast, behind a new county services building, 100 homes will be built.

Roundabouts — particularly on or near highways — have become increasingly popular among highway departments for slowing traffic while keeping it moving, and reducing the severity of crashes.

Existing roundabouts on or near highways in the Pikes Peak Region are:

*At the interchange of US 50 and Highway 115, near Penrose in Fremont County

*West of the interchange of Interstate 25 and Santa Fe Avenue, in Fountain

*West of the interchange of I-25 and Baptist Road, near Monument

New roundabouts already planned are:

*At the intersection of US 24 & Judge Orr Road, in Falcon (construction to start next fall)

*At the intersection of Highway 83 & Stagecoach Road (no construction date yet)

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Bradley Davis

CRIPPLE CREEK, Colo. (KRDO) – Like your KRDO13 crews, the Cripple Creek & Victor Gold Mine is a 24-hour operation.

Wednesday morning, their work crossed paths hours before the sun, live from Colorado’s last large-scale gold mining operation.

“I think we all have the yellow Tonka trucks, the little loaders in your sandbox, so this is kind of like big boys and big toys,” mine general manager Lowe Billingsley said.

The mine is far from exclusive, but tour season is almost over. For the next three weeks leading up to Halloween, people can book tours at the only site that’s stood the test of time since the Colorado Gold Rush. You can find a tour link here.

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Scott Harrison

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. (KRDO) — A handful of residents in the University Park neighborhood behind the University of Colorado-Colorado Springs gathered before sunrise at one of two roundabouts that have become a safety concern.

The group met with KRDO13’s The Road Warrior on Collegiate Drive, a block west of Union Boulevard, where drivers regularly exceed the posted 25 mph speed limit.

Collegiate, along with nearby Rockhurst Boulevard, has roundabouts at the bottom of two steep hills.

Residents said that there have been several close calls with vehicles nearly hitting people or pets.

“The roundabouts aren’t wide enough,” said Randy Schulz, who moved to the neighborhood last fall. “People can almost drive straight through them. Drivers don’t even slow down when people are at crosswalks, walking their dogs. We’re going to have a tragedy here if this keeps up.”

Some residents confirmed that a pedestrian was recently struck by a vehicle on Rockhurst, but they don’t know the extent of her injury.

Much of the speeding concern comes from senior citizens and retirees in the neighborhood.

But the problem isn’t unique to University Park.

The Colorado Springs department said that it is gradually investigating more than 1,200 neighborhood speeding complaints throughout the city.

“We have limited manpower and resources to cover them all,” said spokesman Ira Cronin. “We prioritize them based on where they happen, how frequently they happen, and whether an injury or fatality occurred.

Police conducted a traffic evaluation in the spring and determined that Collegiate has “visibility issues” that affect drivers’ ability to see pedestrians crossing the street.

While neighbors believe that most of the speeding traffic is from drivers cutting through the neighborhood to avoid congestion on nearby Academy and Union Boulevards, Cronin said that some speeding drivers live in the neighborhoods they’re cited in.

“We’re glad you’re doing this story and calling attention to the matter,” he said. “The best and easiest thing is for everyone to just slow down.”

Both streets have speed feedback signs (speed limit signs that activate flashing lights when passing drivers exceed the speed limit), but on Collegiate, the sign isn’t close to the roundabout.

“We could put safety trailers (speed feedback signs attached to trailers) or a speed safety vehicle (equipped with a camera to cite speeders) there,” Cronin explained. “But the trailers would block the bike lanes, and the speed safety vehicles are dedicated to school zones during the day.”

The city’s traffic engineering office is aware of the speeding concern in University Park, and plans to install more feedback signs this month.

“If they do not sufficiently reduce speeds, (we) plan to work with residents to evaluate additional traffic-calming measures, which could include speed humps,” the city said in a statement released Monday.

That possibility pleases Schulz.

“We wanted humps before, but we were told that the fire department didn’t like them because they could affect emergency response times,” he said.

Stay up to date with the latest local news, sports, and investigations by downloading the KRDO13 app. Click here to download it from the Apple App Store. Android users can download it from Google Play here.

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