Funding shortfall revealed for two projects related to Olympic Museum in Colorado Springs

Two projects related to the construction of an Olympic Museum in Colorado Springs were updated Monday during a City Council work session.

The $85 million museum is scheduled to open in 2020 but the related projects are building a pedestrian bridge across railroad tracks to connect to America the Beautiful Park, and improving six blocks of Vermijo Avenue and Sierra Madre Street in front of the museum.

The council learned the cost of the projects has risen to $40 million but only $23 million has been allocated, leaving a shortfall of $17 million.

The bridge will cost $15.6 million and the street improvements will cost $24.5 million.

“That’s a 500 percent increase,” said Councilman Don Knight. “There’s an inconsistency here in the last 18 months that we’re unaware of and caught us by surprise.”

Kathleen Krager, the city’s head traffic engineer, explained why the projects’ costs have increased.

“Because of the strong economy, everyone’s building,” she said. “We’ve seen a phenomenal increase in inflation. Labor costs more, materials cost more. If we hadn’t found an American fabrication firm to build our (steel) bridge, the cost would have been even higher because we would have had to pay tariffs on it.”

As for the street improvements, Ryan Phipps, the city’s senior engineer, cited several reasons for rising costs there: an underground stormwater system to water trees that will be planted; high-quality sidewalk materials and high-quality lighting.

“We want to turn (that stretch of) Vermijo Avenue into a festival street for special events,” he said. “To facilitate those events, it won’t have curbs and will connect to the Olympic Museum to the historic Pioneers Museum. We’re trying to make the museum, and the streets around it, the most accessible building in the world. Accessible to pedestrians, bicycles, scooters, and wheelchairs.”

Councilwoman Jill Gaebler is unhappy that the Vermijo improvements don’t include bike lanes.

“I’m glad the surrounding streets do but am disappointed Vermijo doesn’t,” she said. “People are going to want to ride their bikes there to see the view from the bridge, the Penrose Fountain and Pikes Peak. I’m going to ride my bike there.”

Krager said painting a green bike lane on Vermijo would defeat the purpose of making it a festival street.

“It would just make bikers go faster and you might have them clipping pedestrians,” she said. “We don’t want that. People are just going to have to watch for bikers and pedestrians.”

Three options surfaced at the work session: have the developer fill the funding gap; have private donations make up the shortfall, or use tax money generated from future businesses around the museum.

Krager said the city also can lower costs by cutting extras from the projects.

“Maybe we use cheaper sidewalk materials, or reduce the number of blocks we planned to upgrade,” she said.

But the projects’ master developer, Jeff Finn, is reluctant to consider that.

“Those areas really need to be upgraded,” he said.

Work on both projects is scheduled to begin in 2019 and be completed in 2020.

The City Council expects to vote on the matter for the first time during its regular meeting Tuesday.