El Paso County officials reverse course, install roundabouts on south end of Furrow Road near Monument

EL PASO COUNTY, Colo. (KRDO) -- In an update to a story by KRDO 13's The Road Warrior in May 2025, officials have changed their minds about whether to install roundabouts on a two-lane, mile-long segment of Furrow Road.

Crews finished construction last week on a pair of roundabouts along the road through an upscale residential neighborhood just east of Monument.

One roundabout is just south of Highway 105, at the Minglewood Trail intersection; the other is farther south at the Lamplight Drive intersection, just north of Higby Road.

Officials hope that the traffic-calming devices will significantly reduce speeding on the hilly, winding road.

And although neighbors are willing to try anything to curb speeding, some are skeptical.

"It's nice that they're putting them in," said Lark Haines, who lives next to one of the roundabouts. "I kinda have questions about the type of roundabouts they're putting in and if they're really going to have any traffic calming effects because the other mitigation projects have not made a difference at all."

The roundabouts aren't made of brick and concrete as we usually see, but are modular, using prefabricated materials bolted to the pavement.

Crews created buffer zones around the roundabouts so that semitrucks and other large vehicles can get around them, and some neighbors worry that traffic will drive over them.

Officials previously tried other measures to reduce speeding -- such as narrowing the lanes to a width of 11 feet and creating a walking/biking path on the west side of Furrow.

However, some neighbors say that loose gravel from a median between the path and the road can be a hazard, adding that some spend their own time cleaning up the loose gravel.

The sheriff's office has placed a speed meter along the road to monitor how often drivers violate the 30 mph speed limit.

The county recently released the following statement:

The original countermeasures we used were very effective; however, we have researched and are piloting this prefabricated, modular roundabout product on Furrow, since this road was already identified as a candidate for this type of traffic-calming improvement.

Officials estimate the cost of the project at $1.5 million.