Repair plan in place for long-damaged section of road leading to El Paso County Fairgrounds
CALHAN, Colo. (KRDO) - Tradition is a big part of the annual El Paso County Fair this week, but one tradition visitors would like to end is the poor condition of Yoder Street leading to the fairgrounds.
The street is on a hill only .2 miles from where it becomes Calhan Highway in front of the fairgrounds, but it it might as well be a mile long to drivers who endure numerous, deep potholes; crumbling, cracking, eroding pavement; and no curbs, gutters or sidewalks.
Yoder Street also is fairly busy with traffic from heavy trucks and school buses that further wear the pavement down.
Especially frustrating to drivers is that the street lies just outside of county jurisdiction and is in the Calhan town limits.
Residents tell KRDO 13 that the street was once the responsibility of the county but later became the town's responsibility; in a 2021 interview, Mayor Roger Lemesany said that the small eastern county town doesn't have the revenue to afford major infrastructure projects -- which is why residents voted to become the sixth member of the Pikes Peak Rural Transportation Authority (PPRTA) that year.
And that was a smart decision as far as Yoder Street is concerned.
The PPRTA levies a sales tax to residents of Calhan, nearby Ramah, El Paso County, Colorado Springs, Green Mountain Falls and Manitou Springs which finances infrastructure improvements.
In 2022, member voters approved extending the tax -- for a second time since it began in 2004 -- and Calhan Town Clerk Cindy Tompkins said that improving Yoder Street is on the next round of projects to start next year.
"From what I know, they're going to widen (it), they're going to fix the drainage, they're going to repave (it)," she said. "I don't know about curb and gutter, or sidewalks but those three, I know they're going to do."
Drivers and residents are glad to know that a plan is in place.
"I drive on it every day, to and from work," said Jason Chihak, who lives a block away. "I try to avoid it. Every now and then they fill the potholes but it only lasts a few days. The biggest thing to me, is improving the drainage to stop the flooding (at the Yoder/US 24 intersection."
Sonya Vandergriff said that the road began deteriorating when truck shipments of wind turbine equipment began to be set up west of town.
"I just felt like everybody's hands were tied, and they just needed to come to the table and help each other out. You can't just keep putting a Band-Aid on something."
The precise time and cost for the project wasn't available Tuesday morning.
