Manitou Springs bridge blunder creates problems for local businesses

Manitou Springs has hit a major bump in the road with the redevelopment of a bridge.

The city was forced to close down Park Avenue bridge because cars were having trouble crossing it. Scraping the bottom of the cars because the bridge was made too steep.

After six months and hundreds of thousands of dollars spent, the bridge was closed yet again shortly after it was reopened. Businesses in the area are feeling the impact of the closure. With streets blocked off along Cañon Avenue and Park Avenue, limited parking and other construction projects going on around the city, Juanita Canzoneri with Commonwheel Artists says it is really deterring people coming to Manitou Springs. “The construction is scaring people off,” Canzoneri says, “We’ve heard stories of people who haven’t even ventured into Manitou Springs over the last year because of the construction.”

Mayor Ken Jaray is well aware of the problem, “You know I hate to say it but, It’s a bump in the road.” He adds that it is a big problem for the community that needs to be fixed soon.

The bridge and the redevelopment of the Cañon Avenue bridge are on the same contract worth about $1.2 million. The mayor says because of the current issue, the other project is going to be set aside for now, “With this bridge being delayed, were probably not going to be able to move forward on the Cañon Avenue bridge and because of that we are going to lose some funding.”

The city will be hosting a meeting Tuesday to discuss what can be done to right this wrong.​​​​​​”We’ve asked the contractor and the engineer to come with a set of plans about how we would smooth this out so to speak so it wouldn’t be so steep so we will have a proposal tomorrow,” says Jaray