Four blocks of Uintah Street east of downtown Colorado Springs closed for emergency repairs

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. (KRDO) -- Officials are assessing the condition of a bridge over Shooks Run Creek on Uintah Street to make emergency "utility and bridge repairs," according to a city release issued late Wednesday afternoon.

The closure of four blocks of Uintah, between Institute and Prospect Streets, happened around 4 p.m. Wednesday.

"I was probably gone about two hours," said Heather Laney, a neighbor who was walking her dog early Thursday morning. "Whenever I came back, it was all shut down with no real word. It happened very quickly."

Around noon on Thursday, a city spokesman revealed that a Colorado Department of Transportation (CDOT) crew conducting routine maintenance on the bridge reported a void in the drainage tunnel under the bridge, and that void compromised a utility line.

The report came on Tuesday, and officials closed the bridge the next day.

Crews are actively working on repairs, with the first response last night and a larger response on Thursday.

Uintah is a vital traffic corridor; it's one of the city's few east-west routes that crosses nearly the entire city, from Academy Boulevard to Interstate 25, to just east of Manitou Springs.

This is the second time since last fall that the city has closed a bridge over the creek for repairs

In October 2025, KRDO13's The Road Warrior reported on the bridge closure on Cache La Poudre Street several blocks south of the Uintah bridge for a scheduled maintenance project between El Paso and Prospect streets.

Work on the century-old bridge was delayed, but eventually completed, after the city issued a stop-work order to the contractor amid concerns about code violations relating to erosion control and other issues.

Many neighbors and drivers woke up on Thursday morning, surprised to find the street closed.

Among them were retirees Ken & Terry Laura, who were riding their bicycles in the area.

"That this has all of a sudden come up, and we've had no warning about it, makes me wonder what's going on and if it's safe," she said."

In Wednesday's press release, officials said that they hoped to have the street reopened by the end of the week, but that timetable may change.

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