Colorado Springs – Several gates will be installed at Garden of the Gods to help control access on Wednesday.
The City of Colorado Springs is meeting Tuesday to discuss plans for installing them, and the overnight closures that will prevent after-hour traffic within the park. Once all of the remaining gates have been installed, the City expects after-hour gate implementation to begin later this month or in early September.
Those gates may be at Garden of the Gods, but they’re definitely not pearly. They are heavy duty steel.
For decades for the park rules and hours have been an honor system. Now, the rapidly increasing number of visitors brings a change. “The park is so popular. We have so many people. We always used to say we’ve got a million visitors a year. Well now we know that’s closer to 4 million visitors a year,” said Colorado Springs Parks Maintenance and Operations Manager, Kurt Schroeder. The gates bring new traffic control measures.
The man reasons for the addition of gates include special events, maintenance work, safety and crime prevention. The gates can block off the park for things like a running race. When it snows or road work needs to happen, crews can work more efficiently if they do not have to contend with traffic on the narrow roads.
