Updating water vault project by Colorado Springs Utilities, traffic impacts
COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. (KRDO) —We're learning more about what a water vault is, what it does and the traffic impacts of the $12 million Colorado Springs Utilities (CSU) project along Academy Boulevard between Meadowland Boulevard and Flintridge Drive.
Academy traffic in the area is down to one lane southbound and two lanes northbound, with all traffic using the northbound lanes and the normal southbound lanes closed — increasing congestion on what is already one of the city's busiest streets.
"It's put a lot of traffic in front of our house, for sure," said Karole Carros, who lives in one of two neighborhoods north and south of the project. "A lot of people drive through here instead of going down Academy, because that bottleneck takes too long to get through. It's caused us to be late to school."
Another neighbor, Wendy Auck, has lived in the area since 1980.
"We're for it," she said. "The roads have to be worked on and improved. We've been here a long time and seen a lot of construction. So, it's not really any new thing for us."
A viewer recently contacted KRDO 13's The Road Warrior to say that he was nearly in a head-on collision because of signs and markers that had been blown or knocked down — leaving other drivers uncertain about the correct driving lanes.
Some drivers say that they try to avoid the construction zone by using side streets, only to be frustrated by finding more street closures from other projects.
CSU has a traffic control team to oversee sign placement, but that can be particularly challenging with the number of high wind alert days recently, and with some drivers running red lights at the Academy/Meadowland intersection.
Although the water vault project is happening at the Academy/Maizeland intersection, the traffic impacts on Academy stretch for nearly a mile — from Flintridge Drive to the north, and close to Austin Bluffs Parkway south.
Work began in mid-January to replace the vault; project manager Kyle Schelhaas describes it as a basement-like structure around a 42-inch water main that sends water down Academy from two treatment plants at the Air Force Academy.
"It breaks water pressure from upstream," he explained. "The vault brings it down from 300 pounds per square inch, to 100 psi so that it can enter our distribution system. There's valves. There's controls that open and close the valves inside there. The vault gives us direct access to those valves."
Schelhaas said that the original vault — which is at least 15 feet underground — was built in the 1960s and needs to be replaced.
"We're adding these new valves for the newer technology, and we're adding a second column downstream with a flow meter," he said.
The flow meter will help CSU do a better job of detecting leaks that could become messier and costly water main breaks in the future.
"We can see how much water is making it, you know, from A to B," Schelhaas said. "So, if we're seeing discrepancies in that information, you know, we have potential leaks."
The project is the latest phase in a series of upgrades to install new flow meters and valves along the Academy water main from Meadowland, south to Maizeland Road.
Schelhaas said that the upgrades will make it easier for CSU to stop water flow when necessary, without cutting off service to customers.
"We're already seeing the benefits of that," he said "Here at Meadowland, we haven't had to disrupt customer service, where we had to do that in the other work."
CSU expects to finish the project in July.
It's the latest disruption for the Vista Grande neighborhood north of the project; one of The Road Warrior's first reports last year was on concrete work that built new sidewalks, curbs, gutters and driveway aprons to prepare for repaving in the city's 2C program.
