Stormwater System Not A Walkway

Last month’s stormwater search and scare has got the City of Colorado Springs asking for your help. They want you to tell your kids or someone’s else’s children to stay out out of the system. At the end of January, two kids were seen going into an open manhole cover off Platte, in between Academy and Murray. A city utility crew tried to coax the little boy and girl out, but they were afraid and kept running in the system. It’s believed they exited at one of the open stormwater tunnels, blocks away.

The City of Colorado Springs and Utilities wants to remind everyone this is not a tunnel system to get around. It’s believed that children are using the system to get to the nearby Citadel Mall under Academy. The fear from last month’s search is that there are low oxygen levels in the system.

Now, the manhole cover that was yanked off has been replaced by one that’s much heavier and has a special locking mechanism. This means a new potential problem. If children or others are using the system as a tunnel, there is one less exit because of the new manhole cover.

I spoke with School District 11 which has nearby schools to this makeshift tunnel system. Administrators will do everything they can to remind children and their parents of the dangers of using the stormwater system as a walkway to get to nearby stores.