CDOT to make major traffic change at US 24, Manitou Cliff Dwellings intersection
EL PASO COUNTY, Colo. (KRDO) -- Exiting the Manitou Cliff Dwellings can be a potentially dangerous situation for drivers turning right to merge onto westbound US 24, or crossing speeding lanes of traffic to turn left and travel eastbound.
"Over the last five years that would have ended in 2023, going backward, there were 13 total crashes -- of which 9 of those were because of crossing the intersection and making that left-hand turn," said CDOT spokesperson Amber Shipley. "And those nine were more serious broadside crashes."
She added that traffic exiting the Cliff Dwellings isn't enough to warrant a traffic signal at the intersection.
To increase safety, a project by the Colorado Department of Transportation (CDOT) started Tuesday to build a dedicated right turn lane protected by a concrete island at the intersection of US 24 and Cliff Road.
Construction will occur during overnight hours Sunday through Thursday, with a closure of the intersection and the right westbound lane at that point.
The project is scheduled for completion next month.
Shipley confirmed that CDOT also will prohibit left turns at the intersection.
"Drivers of cars and smaller vehicles can go west to the next intersection (Serpentine Drive and Cave of the Winds) and make a U-turn," she explained. "Buses, vans and other larger vehicles can turn right into the Cave of the Winds entrance and turn around there. I would imagine that we'll adjust the traffic signals to accommodate that. Cave of the Winds and the Cliff Dwellings agreed to it."
But Robert Hefner, the Cliff Dwellings' operations manager, expressed mixed feelings.
"I'm all about improving safety," he began. "But we're going to make one intersection safer to kind of send everybody up to the next one, and hope we can get things squared away up there, safer than what we have here?"
The US 24/Cliff Road project is the last of four projects that started last November as part of CDOT's US 24 Intersection Improvements Project; the agency also took measures to improve pedestrian safety at the US 24 (Cimarron Street) intersections of 8th, 21st and 31st streets.
All four projects cost approximately $1.3 million.
