COLORADO SPRINGS — Planned water outages are set to start Tuesday, May 2, for around 120 homes and businesses near North Academy Boulevard in Colorado Springs.
It is part of the Colorado Springs Utilities (CSU) water valve replacement project. CSU said crews will be installing isolation valves to an aging pipeline to increase reliability in the case of a water main break.
Water outages are planned to last until Thursday, May 4. CSU said some homes and businesses will experience water outages for one day while others could be out of water for the full three days.
"For the next three days, we're going to be working around the clock, so customers won't be impacted by the water outage any longer. But for the rest of the project, we will be working normal business hours," said Carrie Guy, a spokesperson for CSU.
All American Sports, along North Academy Boulevard, is one of the businesses that will experience a one-day water outage. Peter Fowler, the owner, said the store will close for the day but has already been impacted by lane closures in preparation for the construction project.
"Nobody has access off of Academy Boulevard, which is the main way that we get here [All American Sports]. Not only my visitors, but everybody near us and west of us, virtually has no access. So it's very irritating," said Fowler.
Desirae Leipply, the owner of The Cupcake Doctor near North Academy and Austin Bluffs Parkway, said her business will experience a one-day water outage as well.
"As a restaurant, of course, you can't do any food prep when you don't have running water, hot water. So basically, we had to do all our prep for the next few days in advance," said Leipply.
Leipply said the traffic has not impacted her business significantly, however, Fowler said he plans on filing an insurance claim due to a loss in sales after part of his business was blocked off in preparation for the construction.
CSU said construction for phase one of the water valve replacement project will impact North Academy Boulevard from Austin Bluffs Parkway to Maizeland Road and will last until May 26.
Construction for the second phase of the project is set for spring of 2024 and will only affect the intersection of North Academy Boulevard and Austin Bluffs Parkway.
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