COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. (KRDO) — The latest phase in the $11 million Park Vista drainage improvements project will allow traffic to resume on a street that’s been closed since last October.
The closure of a block of Hopeful Drive was to replace a bridge over Templeton Gap Creek, and dry weather helped crews finish the project two months early.
One neighbor turned the event into a part, attaching celebratory balloons to the bridge and handing out cupcakes.
A city release issued on Friday afternoon announced the street’s reopening but did not indicate a specific time.
The new bridge is part of the larger drainage project designed to eliminate flash flooding and erosion west, to the Academy Boulevard/Austin Bluffs Parkway intersection.
Another intersection nearby, at Siferd Boulevard and Date Street, was part of a low-water crossing that flooded during heavy rain events and occasionally required firefighters to rescue drivers and passengers trapped in the high water.
For a short time before the Park Vista project began, the city installed gates at the intersection that would be temporarily closed by firefighters during flash flood warnings.
At times, flash flooding also over-topped the new Hopeful Drive bridge — flooding the street and some adjacent homeowners’ property…