Power outages in Manitou Springs Thursday night due to utility work
MANITOU SPRINGS, Colo. (KRDO) -- A portion of Manitou Springs will be without power Thursday evening well into the night due to utility work.
According to the City of Manitou Springs, Colorado Springs Utilities is lowering electric utility infrastructure on Manitou Avenue Thursday, May 5, which will result in power outages for homes in several surrounding areas.
The outages are expected to start around 6 p.m. Thursday, and Springs Utilities hopes to have power restored by midnight.
This outage coincides with road work many have likely already spotted along Manitou Avenue as utilities workers have been digging trenches. Colorado Springs Utilities says they’re now cutting off the power to install underground power lines.
"The outage is necessary because we're in the process of undergrounding electric lines in the area, and that includes some electric vault work," said Steve Berry, spokesperson for Colorado Springs Utilities. "We can't have live power whenever we're working on those vaults.”
During this timeframe, all homes along Manitou Avenue from Park Avenue to Serpentine, Serpentine Drive, Minnehaha Avenue, Ute Trail, Rock Road, and Pine Ridge Road will lose power.
The area highlighted in green is affected by power outages.
While overhead power lines are cheaper and easier to fix if there’s an issue, underground lines are less affected by weather and less of an eyesore.
Thursday's outage is an inconvenience that Colorado Springs Utilities hopes will lead to less inconveniences in the future.
"Generally, underground lines are a little bit more reliable," said Berry. "They're not as susceptible to wind damage and things like we saw in December. So the advantage really is reliability more than anything else."
Springs Utilities says this is one of their larger undergrounding efforts they’ve worked on recently.
They also say the timeframe of 6 p.m. to 12 a.m. was chosen because it was the city's preference, along with a good weather forecast.
"Certainly we apologize for the inconvenience," said Berry. "Short term inconvenience for long term gain."
Residents were supposed to be notified of the outage well in advance by Colorado Springs Utilities or Manitou Springs.
Anyone who lives in the affected area with medical needs that require power, like an oxygen machine, should make plans to stay somewhere else for the night.
