CDOT installing closure gates on U.S. 24 in Ute Pass
The Colorado Department of Transportation is spending $1 million to install 11 closure gates on a stretch of highway that has been vulnerable to flash flooding since the June 2012 Waldo Canyon Fire.
The gates are located in strategic areas on U.S. 24 in Ute Pass between Manitou Springs (Cave of the Winds entrance) and Cascade (Pikes Peak Highway entrance).
Andy Stecklein, a CDOT project manager, said the gates will allow the agency to close the highway faster during flash flood warnings, better manage closures and manage them with less manpower.
“We would not require more than one person at each location,” Stecklein said. “In the prior scenario, it could take a number of folks at each location, in order to safely implement a shutdown.”
Stecklein said the gates still must be lowered and raised manually, and that state troopers will remain a presence at major closure points.
Highway closures due to flooding frustrate many drivers who are forced to wait or take long detours. However, drivers who spoke with KRDO NewsChannel 13 support the gate project.
“I think a lot of people are stupid and whenever something happens, like a catastrophe, people tend to go right to it,” Amanda Whipp, a Colorado Springs driver, said. “With all of the mud slides and flooding, the footage I saw on the news was just crazy. I think (the project is) more for our safety than anything else.”
Stan Van Aucken has lived in the Ute Pass area since 1964.
“The weather is so changeable so quickly, it catches people unaware,” he said. “There are a lot of people who aren’t familiar with how sudden that can happen. So I think the project is a great idea.”
Stecklein said the project is beyond the normal responsibilities of a transportation department, but that CDOT is responding to public demand to control flash flooding.
“We’re also working to improve our ability to predict when a flash flood is coming,” he said.
The closure gate project began in November and is scheduled for completion in April.
