Colorado Springs Utilities to bore under local creek to install water line for second time this year

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. (KRDO) -- In late May, KRDO 13's The Road Warrior brought you a fascinating look at a segment of a 24-inch water main being installed under Bear Creek as part of the ongoing improvements project on 8th Street.

Definitely something you don't see every day, but you'll get to see it again in the coming weeks.

Colorado Springs Utilities (CSU) designed the 8th Street main and began preliminary work this week to install a new 16-inch water line on Hancock Expressway, in front of CSU's Leon Young Service Center.

CSU will use the same contractor as with the previous project.

The Hancock project will bore 60 feet under Spring Creek -- twice as deep as in the 8th Street project -- because Spring Creek is deeper and wider.

Another difference is that the Hancock line will be considerably longer, around 2,000 feet, and connect to new and existing apartment complexes east of the service center near the Union Boulevard intersection.

"It just creates a more reliable, resilient water system," Cassie Melvin, a CSU spokesperson, explained. "Just completing the section through here for growth in the area, for the road that's going to be developed by the city."

That new road is Twin Bridges Road, currently under construction below the MLK Bypass, between Las Vegas Street and the Hancock service center; it cuts through what is currently CSU property and will replace an existing train crossing when it opens this fall.

The new line will also be under two bridges -- on Hancock and on the Bypass above Hancock.

CSU said that the project should be finished in December.

Traffic will be reduced to one lane in front of the service center during construction.